Our human brain has an amazing ability to make us feel good as well as make an anxious person feel bad. The brain function I am referring to here that can help us feel good and normal is it’s capacity to create what is called “cognitive consonance” to correct the distressing state of “cognitive dissonance”. I tell clients this brain function is like an internal gyroscope like that on a cruise ship. What in the hell am I talking about you wonder. Well, let me explain:
How your brain function acts like an internal gyroscope
Gyroscopes are present everywhere in our daily life without our awareness. Cell phones use a gyroscope, airplanes have about a dozen in things from it’s compass to autopilot. And a yo-yo’s spinning motion gives it gyroscopic stability. But the image I prefer is the regulating effect of gyroscopes on big cruise ships – also called gyrostabilizers or stabilizers. Here they help reduce the rolling and imbalance of a ship at sea. When waves cause the ship to roll, the motion automatically activates the gyrostabilizers to right and steady the ship. This is how our “internal gyroscope” helps steady, stabilize and right us when we are off balance. It activates our brains natural self-stabilizing reaction by triggering mental defense mechanisms to put us back in balance and in a state of cognitive consonance vs. the off balance state of cognitive dissonance.
So what is this consonance/dissonance of which I speak?
Simple. When we are in disagreement with ourself, in a state of internal conflict, we are off balance or in a state of dissonance. Getting back in agreement with ourself, no longer with internal conflict, we have consonance meaning inner harmony.
OK, still not super clear, this should clarify.
When our behavior is consistent with our values we are in harmony with ourself, we feel good. When our behavior is inconsistent with our values we feel like crap – guilty, fearful, or various other negative feelings. And more specifically we are in harmony or consonance with ourself when our behavior, values, thoughts and feelings align with each other.
An example I often use to explain this internal gyroscopic activity is a situation where we may be given a $10 dollar bill in change from a store clerk when we knew it should be just $1 in change. We have 2 choices:
1. We pocket the extra cash or give it back and point out the mistake.
2. If we choose to walk out with the $10 we may, if we have a decent functioning conscience, feel guilty.
If you go with option 2, we are now in a state of cognitive dissonance and feeling bad, which automatically activates the internal gyroscope to make us feel right again. It activates a change in our behavior, thinking and/or feelings to bring us back into harmony with all these parts. It causes us to go back in and return the extra money or it activates defense mechanisms such as rationalization to stabilize us.
Rationalizations such as:
-“I shop there all the time, they’ve made lots of money off me,”
-“This probably just makes up for times I was overcharged but didn’t even notice,”
-We may decide to resolve our guilt by deciding to give the money to a charity,
-Or we may just scold ourself for our bad behavior as punishment and then resolve to be more honest in the future.
Whichever of these are activated, they were all the result of our brain’s natural self-stabilizer or gyroscope.
OK, so what does this have to do with anxiety?
Simply put, if we resist anxious or compulsive behaviors and feel distressed, the inner gyroscope activates to make us feel better, less anxious. If we face a threat instead of avoid it, the brain’s self-stabilizing ability activates to calm us and help us realize the threat wasn’t real or as bad as we feared. If a person with OCD resolves to step on a proverbial crack, the gyro helps them overcome the anxiety and distress that results. Doing so helps them to start breaking the compulsive habit. The problem here is getting the person willing to take the leap of faith that their brain is going to make them feel ok and then resist the irrational urge. The
more the person understand this inner gyro or self-calming capacity, the easier it will be for them to take a deep breath and face their fear. In the next blog I will describe a few recent examples of success with this as described by my clients.
You can read the original paper by Leon Festinger, the originator of the concept of Cognitive Dissonance here: https://www.panarchy.org/festinger/dissonance.html
Anybody interested in reading more about gyrostabilizers on cruise ships can find more here: http://veemgyro.com/how-gyrostabilizers-work/