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Speaking of Psychology · October 1, 2025 · 38m
What Is Anxiety and How Can We Treat It Effectively?
Vanderbilt psychologist Bunmi Olatunji discusses the emotions driving anxiety disorders, how to distinguish normal anxiety from pathological anxiety, and why exposure therapy remains the gold standard treatment despite its counterintuitive approach.
This summary was generated from show notes and public descriptions, not from a full transcript review. Details may contain inaccuracies.
Highlights
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Anxiety is a prediction error — the brain overestimates threat and underestimates coping ability
Olatunji: anxiety disorders involve two systematic prediction errors: overestimating the probability and severity of negative outcomes, and underestimating one's ability to cope with them. Treatment corrects both predictions through evidence — showing the brain that threats are smaller and coping is greater than it expects.•
Exposure therapy works by updating threat predictions, not by habituation
Olatunji: the modern understanding of exposure therapy has shifted from habituation (getting used to fear through repetition) to inhibitory learning (creating new, competing predictions that override old threat predictions). This reframing has improved treatment design.Was this useful?