Anxiety

We have successfully treated thousands of patients who were suffering from some type of anxiety disorder. At Sponaugle Wellness Institute, we diagnose the underlying cause of anxiety disorders. Our clinical brain research has proven there are several key environmental factors playing a primary role in the increased anxiety of Americans. Anxiety disorders are now the number-one mental health condition in American women. In American men, anxiety disorders are second only to alcohol and drug abuse.

The number of Americans suffering from an anxiety disorder has tripled since 1980. This drastic increase in the prevalence of anxiety disorders must be related to changes in our environment because the gene pool does not change that much in just 30 years. Reading this chapter will assist you in understanding why so many of your friends and neighbors are suffering from some type of anxiety disorder.

The symptom of anxiety is actually caused by excessive electrical activity in the brain. Our clinical brain research has compared changes in brain chemistry patterns to changes on the brain scans of anxiety ridden patients.

Anxiety can be caused by female hormone deficiencies, deficiencies of calming brain chemicals and excessive toxin build up in the brain, a phenomenon excito-neurotoxicity.

Rhea Before & After

Luke Before & After

Excess Brain Electricity

Our brain is a chemical and an electrical organ. It consists of billions of electrical cells called neurons. When our brain chemistry becomes unbalanced, we can develop excessive electrical activity in various brain regions causing different types of anxiety. 

Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD)

Normally, the anterior cingulate gyrus helps us forgive, forget and move on. However, when it becomes overactive as seen on the right brain scan above, we develop a worry, worry type of anxiety. We become hyper-focused on the negative in our life and we become more stubborn and argumentative. We also worry excessively about our future expecting nothing good to happen.

At Sponaugle Wellness Institute, we use our Brain and Body Wellness program to treat this type of anxiety. We can normally stop the excessive worry within a two week period.

Social Anxiety

Normal

Excessive Activity

Social anxiety is derived from excessive activity in the limbic system as seen above. Patients with social anxiety describe excessive fear, heightened anxiety and self-consciousness in social situations. Patients with social phobia suffer from a chronic fear of being watched or judged by others. They usually attempt to avoid social situations.

Social anxiety derived from an overactive deep limbic system, the emotional center of the brain, can be readily treated at Sponaugle Wellness Institute. Our brain chemistry research, over 8,000 analyses, has proven that these patients suffer from specific brain chemical deficiencies that can be readily corrected with our Brain and Body Wellness Program.

We have successfully treated several Asperger’s patients who had failed multiple treatment regimens elsewhere. They demonstrate the most severe form of social anxiety—so severe in fact— they cannot give others eye contact. They engage in conversation while looking down at their feet.

The deep limbic system is approximately the size of a walnut and resides within the midbrain. Interestingly, women structurally have a larger emotional center than men. This makes women more sensitive to emotional issues, thus, women are naturally better at nurturing children than men. When men develop a severely overactive limbic system, they become more sensitive to emotional pain, much like females.

Other symptoms of an overactive deep limbic system include moodiness, irritability, hopelessness, low self-esteem, decreased motivation, excessive guilt, negativity, the tendency to be easily offended, and depression.

Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD)

Generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) is a waste basket term used by psychiatrists when the brain is over electrified in multiple brain regions as seen below in the Benzene toxic Nascar driver. A leak in his fuel line almost cost him his racing career.

Even though they have no emotional or social situation causing their anxiety disorder, these patients describe feeling overwhelmed with everyday duties and events. They find that relaxation is almost impossible.

GAD patients harbor tension in their brain and in their muscles, particularly in the shoulders and neck.

Their anxiety and fibromyalgia is caused by the excessive electrical activity flowing throughout the brain and body.

Brain chemistry research at Sponaugle Wellness Institute has proven that GAD patients suffer from an imbalance of neurotransmitters, the messenger chemicals that travel between brain and body nerves. Their imbalance in brain chemistry is caused by various disorders that contribute to brain toxicity ranging from gut toxicity and Leaky Gut Syndrome to environmental toxicity and sometimes all the above with an additional brain infection with Lyme and Bartonella.

Panic Disorder

Panic disorder involves feelings of terror that can occur suddenly and often unexpectedly. Kimberly developed Insomnia and Panic Disorder from severe Leaky Gut Syndrome. When the intestinal lining is destroyed from Candida mycotoxins, it “leaks” larger than normal food particles into the blood stream. When these foreign bodies are attacked by our antibodies, the mast cells release surges of histamine into the blood stream.

Histamine is a brain chemical that mimics Dopamine and hence activates Brain Dopamine receptors. Depending on the level of excess Histamine vying for Dopamine receptors, patients usually suffer with insomnia first, the progress to anxiety and when worse, panic disorder.

Panic disorder patients have feelings that are accompanied by intense physical symptoms such as tachycardia (racing heart rate), nausea and sweating. Panic disorder patients often develop a surge of panic when thinking about certain people or considering future events, such as work. Panic disorder is essentially derived from a much higher level of electrical current flowing through the brain than patients with insomnia and generalized anxiety disorder.

At Sponaugle Wellness Institute, we have diagnosed many panic disorder patients with neurotoxicity, the excessive accumulation of fatty toxins in their brain. Our brain chemistry research has proven that neurotoxic patients develop excessive production of the excitatory brain chemicals—PEA (phenylethylamine) and glutamate. For more information on excito-neurotoxicity, please go to our Mold Toxicity and Lyme pages.

Glutamate is the most powerful electrifying chemical made by the brain. Patients who suffer excessive glutamate levels can experience such excessive electrical current in their brain that they literally “electrify” brain cells. Brain scientists throughout the world are in agreement that excessive glutamate activity in the brain is the primary cause of premature dementia and early Alzheimer’s disease. Patients suffering from excessive glutamate activity feel like their brain is “going to explode.”

Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)

Post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a type of anxiety that develops after a negative event or chronic negative scenarios in which serious physical harm has occurred or was threatened.11 Dramatic events such as violence, disasters, accidents or belligerent work colleagues can trigger PTSD.Patients with PTSD demonstrate overactive basal ganglia (dopamine factories) on SPECT and PET brain scans. Excessive dopamine production from overactive dopamine factories causes excessive electrical current throughout the brain. Current theory is that the traumatic event or sequence of traumatic events thrusts the patient into a continuous state of what is known as “fight or flight.” This high-voltage state makes these patients appear edgy and jumpy.

They frequently have a pronounced startle reflex. The human brain is essentially fully developed by age 13, except for the frontal lobes, which don’t fully mature until the age of 25. For this reason, children are more vulnerable to developing excessive basal ganglia activity from traumatic experiences than adults.

Social Anxiety

Social anxiety or social phobia describes patients who suffer excessive fear, heightened anxiety and self-consciousness in social situations. Patients with social phobia suffer a chronic fear of being watched or judged by others which results in avoidance of social situations. Social anxiety is derived from an overactive deep limbic system, the emotional center of the brain that becomes overactive from serotonin deficiency. Patients diagnosed with autism and Asperger’s syndrome demonstrate the most severe form of social anxiety—so severe in fact— that they cannot give others eye contact. They engage in conversation while looking down at their feet. Dr. Sponaugle has diagnosed severe serotonin deficiency in every autistic and Asperger’s syndrome patient he has treated.

The deep limbic system is approximately the size of a walnut and resides within the midbrain. Interestingly, women structurally have a larger emotional center than men. This makes women more sensitive to emotional issues, thus, women are naturally better at nurturing children than men. When men develop a severely overactive limbic system from serotonin deficiency, they become more sensitive to emotional pain like females. The reason serotonin deficiency causes this specific brain region to become overactive is that the majority of the brain neurons in the deep limbic system are GABA nerves. GABA is a relaxing brain chemical that turns down the electrical voltage in brain neurons. Serotonin actually enhances GABA’s ability to activate brain receptors. When serotonin is deficient, GABA relaxation is compromised in the deep limbic system to a greater degree than other brain regions.

Other symptoms of an overactive deep limbic system include moodiness, irritability, hopelessness, low self-esteem, decreased motivation, excessive guilt, negativity, the tendency to be easily offended, and depression.

Depression that is derived from serotonin deficiency is also caused by an overactive deep limbic system. This type of depression has been arbitrarily labeled melancholic depression. One can understand why psychiatrists suggest that depression and anxiety frequently coexist in certain patients. Depression and anxiety derived from an overactive deep limbic system always coexist.