Rewire Your Brain: Think Your Way to a Better Life
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of anxiety. Here ’ s where your avoidance can become rather elaborate. When you anticipate what might happen, you brace your- self for anxiety that you might never have experienced. The more you retreat, the more you will have to retreat. First you are vigilant only about what you know will be anxiety - provoking, but soon you will be vigilant about what might be anxiety - provoking. You limit yourself to activities and situations that you are certain will not be anxiety - provoking. When you encounter a little anxiety in a situation that you thought would be anxiety - free, you begin to avoid that situation in the future. Soon the range of your activities shrinks dramatically. As your world shrinks, the things that trigger anxiety increase. If you take it to the extreme and become agoraphobic, you won ’ t want to leave your house because you will have grown to fear everything outside it. c02.indd 41 c02.indd 41 1/29/10 10:09:57 AM 1/29/10 10:09:57 AM 42 Rew i r e Yo u r B r a i n In short, avoiding what makes you anxious leads you to restrict your activities, which makes your anxiety generalize, which then prompts more avoidance, which in turn promotes more general- ized anxiety, which stirs up even more avoidance. As you can see, it becomes a vicious cycle. The key to taming your amygdala is to break this vicious cycle. You must make sure that you expose yourself to what you were fearful of in the past. By keeping your behavioral options open to anxiety - provoking experiences, you allow yourself to be fl exible and resilient in changing situations. By exposing yourself to what made you anxious in the past, you can learn to recondition yourself and habituate to the situation. When you apply detached attention to your worries, a paradox occurs: the worry circuit calms down. This has been found to hap- pen in people who have OCD. Thus, if you are prone to worry excessively, instead of engaging in the details of what worries you, simply observe. This technique is used in mindfulness meditation, which I will explain in chapter 9 . Activating the Frontal Lobe and Changing Your Narrative The frontal lobe — and particularly its foremost section, the PFC — decides, through its powers of attention and emotional regulatory skills, what is important and what is not. The hippocampus provides the context for any memories that are associated with the situation. When you ’ re walking through a park one evening and you notice through the corner of your eye a large hunched fi gure, you imme- diately brace yourself for a mugger. Your fi ght - or - fl ight response kicks into gear. That ’ s your sympathetic nervous system in action. Then your PFC directs your attention to the fi gure. Your hippo- campus helps to remind you of the context of the fi gure and the shrubs along the path. As you look closer, you see that the fi gure is just a shrub. Your PFC tells your amygdala to calm down, and your c02.indd 42 c02.indd 42 1/29/10 10:09:58 AM 1/29/10 10:09:58 AM Ta m i n g Yo u r A myg d a l a 43 HPA axis — which leads to the release of stress hormones — is shut down. The emotional tone and perspective with which you describe each experience can potentially rewire your brain. The more you describe your ongoing experiences in a particular way, the stron- ger the neural circuits that represent those thoughts will become. Your narratives can be positive or negative. For example, if you fi nd yourself constantly assuming, “ This is hard, ” “ I wonder whether I ’ m going to survive, ” or “ It looks like this is going to turn out badly, ” it ’ s time to restructure the way you think. Your ongoing narrative is organized by three general levels of thought: automatic thoughts, assumptions, and core beliefs (Arden, 2009). On the surface are your automatic thoughts. These are like short tapes that momentarily fl ash through your mind. They are a form of self - talk that you use throughout the day. You produce a variety of automatic thoughts, some consciously and some uncon- sciously. For example, as you walk into a roomful of strangers you might say, “ I don ’ t like this, ” or “ Oh no! People I ’ ll have to get to know. ” Both of these automatic thoughts can contribute to increased anxiety. In contrast, you could say, “ Oh great. New people to meet. This should be interesting. ” Your automatic thoughts can be rewired in your brain to represent more adaptive self - talk. Your assumptions, which are positioned midway between your automatic thoughts and your core beliefs, act as a kind of translator between the two. They aren ’ t as fundamental as core beliefs, yet they aren ’ t as superfi cial as automatic thoughts. Like your automatic thoughts, your assumptions can be rewired by refl ecting reality instead of your worries. Assumptions are one of the prime targets of cognitive - behavioral therapy, which aims to restructure a person ’ s thoughts to refl ect adaptable and constructive thinking problems. For example, in the roomful of strangers you might say, “ I ’ m not good with strangers, ” or you could say, “ I may be a little shy, but I fi nd meeting new people exciting. ” Your assumptions can serve as theories that help you to cope with your core beliefs. Core beliefs are broad generalizations about c02.indd 43 c02.indd 43 1/29/10 10:09:58 AM 1/29/10 10:09:58 AM 44 Rew i r e Yo u r B r a i n yourself and how the world works. When these beliefs are associ- ated with anxiety, they paint you into a corner psychologically, so that whatever you do, you ’ re faced with an insurmountable challenge — one that will always fail. Negative core beliefs can contribute to anxiety. For example, you might have a core belief that you are a deeply damaged person or that you don ’ t have what it takes to make use of any kind of help. Negative core beliefs keep you away from any hope or expectation of relief from anxiety. They set you up to fail because you leave yourself no hope. For example, you could believe that “ I ’ m incapable of form- ing new relationships, ” or you could cultivate a core belief such as “ I ’ m a good person, and when people get to know me they agree. ” Restructuring your core beliefs is a more ambitious challenge than adjusting your automatic thoughts and your assumptions. However, if you work on them simultaneously with feeding your brain to reformat your core beliefs, the two more shallow levels can be harmonized to work effectively. c02.indd 44 c02.indd 44 1/29/10 10:09:58 AM 1/29/10 10:09:58 AM 45 M egan came to see me after a prolonged period of feeling sad. Although she denied having many of the symptoms associated with full - blown depression, she said, “ When things don ’ t go right, I crawl into my shell, and it ’ s hard to crawl out again. ” She described the shell as a “ dark and gloomy place. ” She said that her husband asked her to see a psychologist because “ he was tired of my pessimistic attitude and what he described as my endless negative comments. ” “ Is his description correct? ” I asked. “ Sort of. Hearing him say that put me in a blue period, ” Megan replied. “ He was right, but when he said that he was tired of propping my mood up all the time, I got pretty down about myself. ” “ What do you do when you ’ re feeling frustrated with yourself ? ” I inquired. She gave me an ironic smile. “ I guess I really punish him with more of the same. It ’ s not that I plan it. I just can ’ t seem to stop it. ” “ You get more passive and feel more blue? ” I asked. 3 Shifting Left c03.indd 45 c03.indd 45 1/29/10 10:10:30 AM 1/29/10 10:10:30 AM 46 Rew i r e Yo u r B r a i n “ Yup, ” Megan said, as if she knew that there was a twisted logic to this pattern that I would understand. She explained that she had learned from her parents that “ when they heard any sort of criticism or something went wrong, they ’ d get quiet until somebody pulled them out of it. ” “ Can we say that your passivity in response to anything going wrong makes things worse? ” I inquired. She refl ected for a moment. “ Well, honestly, until my husband said that he was tired of it, I didn ’ t know I was doing it. ” We talked at length about how passivity increases depression. I described how the brain processes passivity and simultaneously spurs depression. The left frontal lobe promotes positive feelings and taking action, and the right frontal lobe promotes passivity and negative emotion. “ So, he was, in effect, functioning as your left frontal lobe, ” I observed, and I explained to her how the two frontal lobes process emotions differently. “ Yeah, I guess I was all on the right side, and he balanced me out with all of his optimism with, as you say, his left. But he said that he ’ s tired of doing all the work while I drag my feet and complain, ” Megan admitted. “ Are you tired of it? ” I asked. “ If you ’ re not motivated to change your behavior, whatever we work on together will be just going through the motions. From another perspective, being angry enough with your situation might be a positive thing. It may give you the fuel to take action. From a brain - based perspective, to be able to rewire your brain so that you can curtail this bad habit, you ’ ll need your left frontal lobe to be fully activated — taking action. ” “ From what you ’ re saying, ” Megan concluded, “ I ought to thank him for saying that he ’ ll stop doing things for me. It ’ s time to make some changes. ” This agreement was only the fi rst step. The idea of making the changes sounded good, but actually making the changes took some work. It was just too easy for her to fall back into her old habit of being passive and thinking negatively. c03.indd 46 c03.indd 46 1/29/10 10:10:31 AM 1/29/10 10:10:31 AM S h i ft i n g Le ft 47 Megan came to understand that her tendency to be passive rep- resented how underactive her left frontal lobe had become. She needed to kick - start it by taking action, however small a step it seemed, to get her left frontal lobe engaged. I also taught her to use the FEED method. By labeling her emo- tions and her passive behavior, she could activate her left frontal lobe. I explained that this link occurs because her left frontal lobe is involved in expressing language. When Megan found herself becoming passive and sinking into negative emotions, she would say to herself, “ Whoops, those nega- tive thoughts mean that my left frontal lobe is going to sleep again. I need to do something to give it a wake - up call. ” The tendency to revert to her old habits occurred several times when something went wrong. It was too easy to shift into a pes- simistic attitude and make the situation worse. By using the FEED method to shift her pessimism to optimism, she was able to rewire an attitude and not cultivate a negative mood to spoil the day. Megan learned that the emotional state she was in at any given time shaded her perceptions, thoughts, and memories. That is, the mood she was in would color all her experiences. This is because all the cells that fi re together to create the mood also fi re with other neurons to create thoughts and memories. The more that you are in a particular mood, the more prone you ’ ll be to be in that mood. Think of it as a gravitational pull or an attractor state. The attractor pulls in your thoughts, feelings, and memories, and motivates your behavior. This tendency can occur spontaneously and can spiral out of control if you don ’ t make an effort to pull yourself out of it. Let ’ s say that you ’ re rushing to your aunt ’ s house for a dinner that you don ’ t want to attend. You ’ re driving through rush - hour traffi c when you suddenly notice that the gas gauge reads almost empty. Now you ’ re really feeling rushed and sulky. As you pull into a gas station, you notice how many cars are lined up at the pumps. To make matters worse, some of the people who are pumping gas are taking their time, washing their windshields, and even leaving their cars to go to the restroom. c03.indd 47 c03.indd 47 1/29/10 10:10:31 AM 1/29/10 10:10:31 AM 48 Rew i r e Yo u r B r a i n You ’ re already in a bad mood, and now you imagine your aunt get- ting upset with you for being late, so your bad mood deepens. The more you think about your aunt ’ s disappointment, the worse you feel. There are so many things that you would rather be doing at the moment, and waiting for people to move on so that you can get to the gas pump is not one of them. These feelings intensify the fi ring of the neural networks that support the bad mood. The woman who has been pumping gas in front of you is fi nished, but she leaves her car at the pump and rushes into the station to buy some snacks. You angrily pull up to a different pump. Why didn ’ t she pull into a parking space after she fi nished pumping her gas? Didn ’ t she realize that there were people waiting behind her? As you are fi nally pumping your gas, she walks back to her car, carry- ing an iced drink, and hands it to her child, who is sitting in the backseat. She left her car at the pump for a drink! You glance at the child, see that he has no hair, and realize that he must be undergoing chemo- therapy for cancer. In a fl ash, your spindle cells kick in with the insight of how you have been in a pathetic self - perpetuating bad mood. What did you have to feel sorry about, compared to this woman? Your mirror neurons refl ect a deep sense of empathy for her and her child. The child spills the drink all over the seat and begins to cry. His mother tries to comfort him as she wipes up the mess. You rush into the store to buy the child another drink. When you return and hand it to the boy, he responds with a sad smile. As you fi nish pumping your gas, you refl ect on how these two people helped you to snap out of your sulky bad mood. You decide to go to your aunt ’ s house with a renewed sense of compassion and selfl essness. This little vignette illustrates how easy it is to drift into a bad mood. Once the neural networks begin fi ring together, they recruit other neurons to keep the bad mood going. As you feed the bad mood with sulky thoughts, it becomes deeper and harder to shake. These bad moods can go on for hours or days at a time. Some people are plagued by them for months or even years at a time. If you have a tendency to be in a particular mood more often than not, we can say that this mood forms a chronic foundation c03.indd 48 c03.indd 48 1/29/10 10:10:31 AM 1/29/10 10:10:31 AM S h i ft i n g Le ft 49 for your experiences in life. It ’ s the background emotional current, the default mode, or the center of gravity in your life. Most of your experiences are based on it and revolve around it. Let ’ s say that during the past few months you have been sad because of the death of your mother. The emotional tone that is created by this sadness recruits related memories and feelings that resonate with it. You may even tell yourself, “ I ’ m going to stay with these sad feelings, because it ’ s a way to honor her. ” Yet if you cultivate the sadness, perhaps even thinking that you are releasing it, you ’ re keeping those neurons fi ring together and thus cultivating a chronic foundation of sadness. More often than not you will feel sadness and will think, remember, and behave in ways that cultivate that emotional foundation. The longer you stay in a low emotional state, the greater is the probability that those neurons will fi re together when you are sad and will therefore wire together. As a result, this will become the chronic foundation of your emotional experience. Sadness and the thoughts and feelings that revolve around that sadness become perpetuated. I am not saying that you should suppress your feelings of grief. Sadness is a normal and natural reaction to losing someone close to you. The point is that you need a balance. You have to move on with your life in addition to acknowledging the feelings of sadness. If you have a chronic emotional foundation that is sad, depressed, or angry, it might seem like a scratched record. The needle on the turntable gets stuck in the scratch, and the same lyrics play over and over. This is the origin of the phrase “sounds like a broken record .” You have to get up and bump the needle over a few grooves to make the song stop repeating itself. You need to fi nd ways to “ bump the needle ” if your emotional foundation is sad, angry, or depressed. There are a number of ways to rewire your brain to promote posi- tive moods. They include the following: • Priming positive moods • Light chemistry • Constructing narratives • Taking action c03.indd 49 c03.indd 49 1/29/10 10:10:32 AM 1/29/10 10:10:32 AM 50 Rew i r e Yo u r B r a i n • Aerobic boosting • Wiring positive thinking • Social medicine Priming Positive Moods You can start to rewire your brain by priming a positive mood through acting as though you are in a good mood when you ’ re not. Let ’ s say that you ’ ve been sad recently and have been pulling back from your friends. Maybe you ’ ve said to yourself, “ I don ’ t want to put on a happy face. ” You should force yourself to call a friend and go out to lunch when you don ’ t feel like it. Once you are at lunch, even just smiling can activate parts of your brain associated with positive emotions. Researcher Kelly Lambert has drawn attention to the effort - driven reward circuit in the brain as being particularly critical for lifting depression. This circuit involves three principal areas: the nucleus acumbens, the striatum, and the PFC. The nucleus accumbens is a peanut - sized structure that is involved in emotion and memory. It evolved to keep us engaged in behaviors that are critical for our survival, such as eating and sex. Because it is a pleasure center, it is also involved in addictive behaviors. The striatum is involved in movement, and because of its rich connections with the accumbens and the PFC, it serves as an inter- face between our emotions and our actions. The PFC, as we have noted, is involved in problem solving, plan- ning, and decision making. The accumbens - striatal - PFC network connects movement, emo- tion, and thinking. Thus, the effort - driven reward circuit links what you do or don ’ t do with rewards or the absence of rewards. When, for example, you lose a sense of pleasure, the accumbens is deactivated. When you are sluggish in your movements, the striatum is deacti- vated. If you have poor concentration, the PFC is deactivated. Without knowing what brain systems are involved, cognitive - behavioral therapists have encouraged depressed people to increase c03.indd 50 c03.indd 50 1/29/10 10:10:32 AM 1/29/10 10:10:32 AM S h i ft i n g Le ft 51 their activity level and have found that these people become less depressed. Behavioral activation, as this is called, appears to trigger the same effort - driven rewards circuit that involves the accumbens, the striatum, and the PFC. The following correlations have been made between hemispheric asymmetry and depression: • Evidence from neurology indicates that a left - side stroke has a Yüklə 1,07 Mb. Dostları ilə paylaş:
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