Avoiding discomfort compromises long-term mental health – 01/13/2024 – Balance

Avoiding what brings us discomfort, anxiety or fear seems logical and natural — after all, who likes to feel uncomfortable, anxious or scared? But, according to Minas Gerais psychologist Luana Marques, professor at the Harvard University School of Medicine (USA), the long-term effect of this psychological avoidance is precisely the opposite: more discomfort, more anxiety, more fear and more stress in the future.

“Avoidance is powerful because it works! It makes us feel better quickly, but it makes things worse in the long run,” he says. “When we start to avoid discomfort, we need to keep avoiding it. And in doing so, we teach the brain that the only way to deal with difficult situations is not to face them, which reinforces the need for avoidance. It’s like a monster that It’s growing.”

She brought together her years of anxiety research with her office experience to create a method of identifying psychological avoidances and the thought patterns behind them, and a plan for reversing them.

The result is in his debut book, “Living with Boldness: A scientific approach to reprogram your way of dealing with discomfort and stress” (Editora Sextante), released at the end of last year in the USA and, now, in Brazil.

“After 20 years of psychology, studying all disorders, I noticed this common denominator in all types of patients: the different forms of psychological avoidance leave people stuck”, says she, who is the first Latina to hold the presidency of the American Association of Anxiety and Depression (Adaa).

In her book, Luana explains what this psychological avoidance is. This is the brain’s reaction to protect us when it perceives some type of danger, whether real or imaginary.

This reaction is triggered even without conscious thought and causes a cascade of biological responses that generate sweat, dizziness and increased heart rate. As a consequence, people tend to behave in three ways: some run away, others fight, and others become paralyzed.

All of this occurs before we can even assess whether the danger is real or imaginary because the area of ​​the brain responsible for this fight, flight and freeze mechanism is the cerebral amygdala, a kind of central hub for instincts and emotions.

“At the same time, one of the brain regions switched off in this process is the prefrontal cortex, the brain’s control center, responsible for making decisions, planning and solving problems, and capable of reducing the action of the amygdala”, explains the psychologist.

To avoid this automatic behavior and activate the thinking brain, Luana states that anyone can use what she calls a “superpower”: the ability to pause and analyze one’s own thoughts, emotions and behaviors.

The author points to a key element of cognitive behavioral therapy called the PEC cycle. The acronym for thought, emotion and behavior deals precisely with the nexus between what we think, what we feel and how we act, in a cycle that can spin like a whirlpool, and keep us trapped in it, but whose strength can be reduced with the necessary pause to activate the prefrontal cortex.

“The person needs to get out of the fight, flight and freeze system in order to change their psychological avoidance. Without the pause, avoidance is automatic, and the brain repeats what it always does in these situations”, she explains.

“Pausing and analyzing the PEC cycle, that is, what you say to yourself and the effects of these thoughts on your emotions and behavior, is the way to start changing the way you face what causes you discomfort”, says the author . These thoughts are generally the product of beliefs we have about ourselves that solidify over time when left unchallenged.

To illustrate the effects of these beliefs, Luana uses many examples from her own life trajectory, marked by family vulnerability, the belief of not being good enough and the challenge to these assumptions that led her to one of the most important universities in the world.

And it is also from this personal experience that she developed a three-step method for changing the three forms of psychological avoidance, which she calls modify, address and align.

This is not, however, something of immediate effect. Luana makes an analogy with physical exercise, which starts in moderation until enough muscles are created for greater load and intensity. And, to help with these mental exercises, throughout the book she proposes a series of activities that anyone can do alone.

“Regardless of social class and the opportunities presented to each person, it is possible to improve mental health and life through training these skills”, he states.

Luana says that most of her patients come to the office asking to get rid of feelings of anxiety and depression, but they don’t want to focus on the origin of these emotions.

“These are symptoms of something that you are trying to avoid and that keeps you stuck in a belief and a life story, instead of allowing you to change,” he says. For her, the only way is to live through these emotions and not try to avoid them.

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