Pop Quiz Answer: The Snake Under the Rock

If you guessed the sure shock, you're in good company. It seems obvious that the worst spot is knowing the bad thing is coming.

It wasn't. People were calmer when they knew a shock was coming for sure than when it was 50/50.

The study: 45 people and a pile of rocks

In 2016, researchers at University College London had 45 volunteers play a computer game. Turn over a rock. If there's a snake under it, you get a mildly painful electric shock.

The odds kept changing through the game, so people were always guessing how likely a snake was. The researchers tracked stress three ways the whole time: how much people sweated, how wide their pupils got, and how stressed they said they felt.

The result was a clean curve. Stress was lowest when the chance of a shock was 0% and when it was 100%. It peaked right in the middle, at 50%, when people had no idea which way it would go.

"It turns out that it's much worse not knowing you are going to get a shock than knowing you definitely will or won't," said Archy de Berker, the study's lead author.

Why this is what anxiety feels like

Read that finding again with your own week in mind.

The test result that isn't back yet. The email you sent that hasn't been answered. The talk you need to have and keep putting off. The kid who's driving home late.

Nothing has happened in any of those. And that's the hard part. Your body would rather have bad news than no news, so while it waits, it braces. Shoulders up, stomach tight, breath short. It can hold that for hours.

In REWIRED, Jessica, Alex and I describe the body's stress response as an alarm system. It's built to go off when there's danger, do its job, and turn off. With anxiety, the alarm is going off for a maybe. And a maybe never arrives, so the alarm never gets the signal that it's over.

Telling your body it can stop bracing

You can't make the uncertain thing certain. The test comes back when it comes back.

What you can do is give your body the "you're safe right now" signal it's been waiting for. Of everything I've tried in almost twenty years of doing this work, tapping is the fastest way I know to do that. You say the true thing ("I don't know what's going to happen, and my whole body is braced for it") while you tap on points that send a steady calming signal. The alarm gets a chance to turn off, even though the question is still open.

We have a lot of data on this one. Jessica's Releasing Anxiety session has been completed 1,797,277 times in our app. People come in at an average of 6.8 out of 10 and leave at 4.1, a 40% drop in about nine minutes (app data).

Let it go now: a short round

Don't save this for later. Pick the one thing you're waiting on that your body keeps bracing for. Notice where you feel it. Rate how strong it is right now, 0 to 10. Then tap through the points while you say the words out loud, changing them to fit.

Side of Hand (repeat three times): Even though I don't know how this is going to turn out and my body is bracing for the worst, I'm safe right now, and I can let my body rest.

Eyebrow: All this bracing

Side of Eye: I don't know what's going to happen

Under Eye: And my body hates not knowing

Under Nose: It's been on alert for hours

Chin: Nothing has happened yet

Collarbone: Right now, in this moment, I'm okay

Under Arm: I can not know and still let my shoulders drop

Top of Head: I'm letting my body stand down

Take a deep breath and rate it again. Did the number move? Do another round with whatever's still there, in your own words.

What tappers have said

From people who did the session in the app:

"I had not realized how stressed I was."
Marg

"today is the first time that I asked myself What Are You Afraid Of. It was a huge weight off my chest"
Veronica

"i feel less anxious and with a belief i can be myself instead of a churned up person."
Catherine

"I love the advice at the end to celebrate any step closer to zero in easing the anxiety."
Donna

Where to go from here

Nine minutes, free: Jessica's Releasing Anxiety session has been completed 1,797,277 times in our app, with an average 40% drop in self-rated intensity (app data).

The bigger picture: REWIRED, our book on how the body's alarm system works and how to help it turn off.

The research

de Berker, A. O., Rutledge, R. B., Mathys, C., Marshall, L., Cross, G. F., Dolan, R. J., & Bestmann, S. (2016). Computations of uncertainty mediate acute stress responses in humans. Nature Communications, 7, 10996. nature.com/articles/ncomms10996

University College London. (2016). Uncertainty can cause more stress than inevitable pain. ucl.ac.uk/news