This is hidden brain.
I'm Shankar Vedantam.
When you build a home or design a building, there are many alarms you might want to install.
We have devices that beep and blare when something is wrong.
They notify us about problems.
They alert us to threats.
In the long course of evolution, nature has built similar alarms into us.
Warnings go off inside our heads when we are about to do something that can be dangerous.
Our internal alarm systems can also get activated by situations that are not dangerous but are still stressful, like performing at a piano recital or public speaking or going to a party where we don't know anyone.
Quarantine was good, though.
No, great.
But recently, I have been going to dinner again.
Did I just say I've been going to dinner again?
Should I give him more details or should I die?
The paradox, of course, is that the alarms meant to help us can also sometimes destabilize us, especially when they become deafening.
This week on hidden brain, learning to listen differently to the alarms inside your head.
Life is full of adversity, challenge, and uncertainty.
Think back to the last time you had a child come to you in tears or a friend who had just received a difficult medical diagnosis.
Think back to the last time you were worried about something, so worried, you could barely think straight.
At City University of New York Hunter College, psychologist and neuroscientist Tracy Dennis Tawari studies these voices of alarm inside our heads and how to deal with them.