Do I Need to See a Therapist

e cannot alter the fact that our brain makes predictions, but we can start to change why it predicts things in that way, and we can decide how we interpret the effects of that prediction.

he story that my brain constructed for this event based on what it knows from my prior experience is a variation of impostor syndrome.

act of suppressing the emotion produced increased activation in the ‘sympathetic nervous system’ (SNS). The SNS is the part of our nervous system that sets off the ‘fight or flight’ response and gets us ready for action. Along with the release of stress hormones, it increases our heart rate, blood pressure and breathing in order to tackle the task at hand. If this type of activity is prolonged it takes us into a state of chronic stress. So if we suppress either positive or negative emotions this has an effect on our body similar to that that occurs when we are dealing with something stressful.

constant adaptation and change process is called neuroplasticity – the science of how certain processes in our brains can be altered and new connections made.

Our brains can easily make up a story to fill in the blanks when our deeper emotions have been triggered. For example, ‘It’s his fault for not communicating properly to me; he shouldn’t have treated me that way.’ Look at the story that you tell yourself. It might just be your brain’s way of trying to understand why you felt threatened and triggered. It may only be a fraction of the picture that you can see and not the whole truth.

our bodies can react as if the event is happening in the here and now.

When traumatic memories are recalled, we can feel a wave of emotion and

When we are in a vigilant state, we see worst-case scenarios more easily.

The reduction in anxiety that we feel after performing a ritual is like a ‘reward’ for the brain. We have stopped a bad thing from happening, for now.

We can see the negative effect of these automatic processes when they connect with things that we fear.