Anxious brains redirect emotion regulation
So, heightened anxiety triggers alternate emotional regulation, with traits like pro-avoidance behavior.<p>To me this is not necessarily dysfunctional. It may also go hand-in-hand with motivating heightened deliberation. I can see how one can fall into  regressive patterns like distracting ourselves away from critical path actions, especially if a particular person only uses one of two strategies, 1) try going on as before or 2) try forgetting we need to go this way.<p>I take a more neutral approach on the finding and don’t yet assume this is something that is best medicated out of. 
They show that <i>even mild emotional challenges can saturate FPl neural range</i>, which to me is simply a greater sensitivity that can be easily overloaded (like when you put the voltmeter on a more sensitive setting).
Exposure Therapy is a methodical, deliberate, routine heavy strategy. ET doesn’t simply get us to re-engage, it gets us to re-engage with new and different behavior, which may be essential to success.