Tamed Anxiety. How to Create Lasting Change - ebook

The Dynamic Nature of the Human Mind

Knowledge is not a static state but an ongoing process. Every day, new research findings emerge—some confirm earlier conclusions, others revise or challenge them, yet they almost always broaden our understanding of human beings. This is particularly evident in psychology, especially in research on emotions and phenomena related to their more difficult manifestations, such as excessive anxiety. In this field, the development of knowledge is exceptionally dynamic . ¹

As recently as the beginning of the twenty-first century, our understanding of the mechanisms underlying the development of the human mind was incomparably more limited than it is today. This applies both to the normative functioning of the mind and to its non-normative forms. Contemporary psychology continually increases the precision with which psychological phenomena are described, and as a result, many views once regarded as self-evident have been re-examined or fundamentally revised . ²

This progress, however, is also a source of confusion. One often hears the question: "Why are there suddenly so many mental disorders? They didn't exist in the past." Such a belief usually reflects not the actual absence of these phenomena in earlier times, but rather our limited knowledge of them. Mental disorders did not suddenly appear. They have existed for as long as the human mind itself has existed. What has changed is our ability to recognize, describe, and understand them . ³

The human mind has accompanied our species since the very beginning of its existence. Anatomically modern humans ( Homo sapiens ) appeared approximately three hundred thousand years ago, and by that time the human brain had already acquired a structure fundamentally similar to that of today. Much later—approximately thirty to forty thousand years ago—languages began to develop in forms that eventually gave rise to those we use today. This means that for hundreds of thousands of years humans possessed brains capable of experiencing, remembering, and responding to their environment, even though they had not yet developed a conceptual system that enabled them to name their own experiences . ⁴

This is an important example showing that the existence of a phenomenon does not necessarily imply the existence of awareness of that phenomenon. Something may exist from the very beginning and yet be recognized and understood only at a particular stage in the development of a species. Environmental conditions change, and with them the demands placed upon human beings. It is precisely the environment that constitutes the primary force driving development. If organisms were unable to adapt to changing conditions, survival would not be possible .

For this reason, the most fundamental mechanism driving development is the need for survival. Although the overall structure of the human brain has remained relatively stable for hundreds of thousands of years, its organization is constantly changing. Both its microstructure and its physiology continue to evolve. The same is true of the human mind. ⁵ It has existed for as long as humanity itself, yet it is continuously shaped and reshaped by the environment, experience, and relationships with other people . ⁶

This is precisely why contemporary psychology is becoming increasingly capable of understanding phenomena that have existed for a very long time. Only today, however, do we possess the scientific tools that allow us to describe them with far greater precision .

¹ Crump T., A Brief History of Science As Seen Through The Development Of Scientific Instruments, Robinson, London, 2002.

Pigliucci M., Nonsense On Stilts: How To Tell Science From Bunk, The University of Chicago Press, Chicago, 2010.

² Feldman Barrett L., Seven And A Half Lessons About The Brain, Pan Macmillan, 2023.

³ Appignanesi L., Mad, Bad And Sad: A History Of Women And The Mind Doctors From 1800 To The Present, Virago Press Ltd., 2027.

⁴ LeDoux J., The Deep History Of Ourselves: The Four-Billion-Year Story Of How We Got Conscious Brains, Penguin Books, 2020.

⁵ Stone L., Lurquin P.F., Genes, Culture and Human Evolution. A Synthesis, Blackwell Publishing Ltd., 2007.

⁶ LeDoux J., The Deep History Of Ourselves: The Four-Billion-Year Story Of How We Got Conscious Brains, Penguin Books, 2020.

Dehaene S., Consciousness And The Brain: Deciphering How The Brain Codes Our Thoughts, Penguin Books, 2014.The Human Mind Is Dynamic

The human mind has existed for as long as our species has existed. Its development is a continuous process, shaped by the conditions in which we live. Our entire organism remains in constant interaction with its environment, and the brain, as one of its components, is no exception. Although its overall anatomical structure has remained fundamentally unchanged for hundreds of thousands of years, its internal organization is constantly evolving. The brain's capacity to undergo continual change in response to experience is made possible by its plasticity. Neuroplasticity is an enduring characteristic of the human brain, continuously generating new forms of change . ⁷

This is precisely why the human mind is so remarkably diverse. The more we learn about its functioning, the more clearly, we recognize that it cannot always be predicted. Its development is the result of an ongoing interaction between the organism's biological capacities and the environment that shapes those capacities .

For the same reason, mental disorders have always existed. This does not mean, however, that they have always taken the same form, followed the same developmental course, or been recognized in the same way. They have evolved together with us and with the world in which we have lived. Most importantly, however, the existence of a particular phenomenon does not necessarily imply awareness of that phenomenon .

Our consciousness is itself a part of the human mind rather than something independent of it. It, too, develops gradually. It may be more or less mature, more or less precise. It can help us understand ourselves, but it can also limit that understanding. It is therefore important to distinguish c onsciousness from self-awareness .

Consciousness enables us to orient ourselves within the surrounding world. Self-awareness, in contrast, allows us to recognize our own psychological states, bodily sensations, thoughts, and patterns of responding . ⁸

We may be fully conscious and function efficiently while remaining unaware of many processes taking place within our own minds. Likewise, we may describe the external world accurately while failing to understand our own emotional reactions or the causes of our behaviour. This distinction will be fundamental to the subject of this book. In the chapters that follow, I will argue that the way we recognize and interpret our own experiences constitutes one of the most important mechanisms underlying the development of anxiety .

⁷ Schwartz J.M., Begley S., The Mind And The Brain: Neuroplasticity And The Power Of Mental Force, Harper Perennial, 2002.

⁸ LeDoux J., The Deep History Of Ourselves: The Four-Billion-Year Story Of How We Got Conscious Brains, Penguin Books, 2020.Anxiety Serves to Interpret Our Own Experience

Anxiety is a mental state that we generate under specific circumstances. Although we are born with a biological capacity to detect and respond to threat, this does not mean that we are born with anxiety as a fully formed emotion. Contemporary psychology allows us to describe this process with far greater precision . ⁹

What we commonly describe as a tendency to become frightened is not yet anxiety. It is a biological predisposition of the organism to respond to threat. The experience of being afraid , however, is a cultural category that emerged with the development of language. Only language enabled us to name our experiences and organize them by means of specific concepts . ¹⁰

We speak of fear or anxiety in order to describe what is taking place within our bodies and minds. In doing so, we attempt to understand our own reactions: the urge to withdraw, flee, hide, avoid, or distance ourselves from situations we perceive as threatening .

It is important to consider the sequence of this process. First, particular signals arise within the body. These may include an accelerated heartbeat, muscular tension, trembling, tightness in the chest, altered breathing, or many other bodily sensations. Next come the thoughts we use to explain the meaning of these experiences. They may take the form of statements such as "I can't do this," "I don't want to," "I'd better leave," or "I'd better avoid this." At the same time, our minds begin to construct images of the future, often anticipating that something dangerous or undesirable is about to happen . ¹¹

Only after bodily sensations, thoughts, and mental images are integrated do we engage in a particular course of action. We withdraw, flee, fall silent, avoid contact, abandon an activity, or do something that, in reality, we never wished to do. This sequence reflects our biological predisposition to respond to threat. What changes, however, is the way we interpret our own experiences. And that interpretation is shaped by language, culture, and the environment in which we develop . ¹²

It may therefore be said that human beings living before the emergence of language also experienced bodily signals, formed mental images, and avoided threatening situations. Yet they would not have described these experiences as either fear or anxiety, because they had not yet developed the concepts required to describe their own psychological states .

For this reason, we may speak of a period in the history of our species during which a sense of threat existed, while the categories of fear and anxiety did not yet exist. Human beings responded to danger with their entire organism, but they did not interpret those responses through emotional concepts because such concepts had not yet been created.

Only with the development of language and culture did we begin to assign meaning to our bodily experiences. We started to classify our own experiences by creating categories such as fear, anxiety, anger, and sadness. It is precisely this process of meaning-making that constitutes one of the central themes of this book .

⁹ Feldman Barrett L., How Emotions Are Made: The Secret Life Of The Brain, Pan Macmillan, 2019.

¹⁰ Ibidem.

¹¹ Ibidem.

¹² Ibidem.From Feeling to Meaning-Making

The emergence of language and culture transformed the way we came to understand both ourselves and one another. Bodily sensations, mental imagery, and patterns of behaviour did not suddenly appear, they had existed long before. What changed was that we began to name them, organize them through concepts, and assign meaning to our own experiences .

For this reason, it may be said that throughout a very long period of our evolution we did not possess the concept of anxiety, even though we repeatedly experienced threat. We had not yet developed a language capable of describing our inner experiences, yet our organisms responded to them in much the same way as they do today. A sense of threat can exist without the category of anxiety. The organism is capable of responding to its environment, activating defensive mechanisms, anticipating danger, and engaging in behaviours that protect life even before these reactions are interpreted as a particular emotion .

Only with the development of language did we begin to assign names to our subjective experiences. In this way we created cultural categories that describe our experience, for example, fear, anxiety, anger, and sadness .

An emotion is the process of assigning meaning to our bodily and psychological experiences through categories developed within language and culture . ¹³

From this perspective, emotion is not a direct product of our genetic makeup. What is innate is the organism's biological capacity to respond to its environment. The way these responses are understood and classified, however, develops gradually through language acquisition, participation in culture, and personal experience . ¹⁴

This distinction can still be observed today. Two people may find themselves in very similar situations. Both experience an accelerated heartbeat, muscular tension, uneasiness, and an influx of unwanted thoughts and mental images. Yet one simply says, "That's just how I felt," while the other says, "I was frightened." At the level of the organism, their experiences may be remarkably similar. The difference emerges only at the level of interpretation. One person does not assign an emotional category to experience, whereas the other interprets it as a specific emotion. This does not mean that the first-person experiences nothing or that the second experiences more. It merely means that their self-awareness has developed in different ways .

Both individuals may undergo similar physiological changes: increased cortisol secretion, muscular tension, trembling, rapid breathing, or intrusive mental images. What differs is the way they understand their own experience. It is the application of an emotional category that enables us to assign meaning to what is occurring within our organism. This does not yet resolve the problem of a distressing experience, but it does represent another step in the development of self-awareness .

¹³ Ibidem.

¹⁴ Ibidem.From Understanding to Emotional Individuality

Today, we can clearly observe this mechanism in everyday life. One person, when confronted with a particular situation, experiences a range of bodily sensations accompanied by specific associations, mental images, and behavioural responses. Yet that person may simply say, "That's just how I reacted," "That's just the way I am," or "I don't know why it happened." Another individual, experiencing a very similar state, will instead say, "I was frightened." .

This means that the first person has not assigned an emotional category to their sensations, thoughts, and behaviour, whereas the second person has. The principal difference between them therefore lies in the level of their cultural experience and self-awareness, even though the processes occurring within their organisms may be remarkably similar. Both individuals may have begun to sweat, experienced increased muscle tension, elevated cortisol secretion, bodily trembling, intrusive memories, or catastrophic mental imagery. Thus, applying an emotional category provides an immediate, yet profoundly important, understanding of one's own condition . ¹⁵ We begin to understand what is happening within our own minds. Every act of understanding represents another step in the development of emotional self-awareness.

There are therefore people who are capable of recognizing signals arising from their own bodies, together with the thoughts associated with them, without identifying these experiences as an emotion. One might say that they do not construct the emotion of fear, even though they experience a sense of threat .

Others, when faced with a very similar situation, construct the emotion of fear and use it as a category for explaining their own condition. As a result, they gain a deeper understanding of their experience. This does not mean, however, that their functioning immediately becomes easier. This distinction is of fundamental importance .

Simply naming and gaining an initial understanding of one's own condition does not eliminate its causes. It can, however, influence the way similar experiences are interpreted in the future. If a particular emotional category, for example, fear —is applied repeatedly, not only does the ability to use that category develop, but so does the ease with which it is activated automatically .

At first, a person wonders whether what they are experiencing is truly fear. Over time, this question no longer arises. The more frequently a particular emotional category is used to interpret one's own experiences, the more readily it becomes available to the mind. Eventually, even a single bodily symptom that has repeatedly been associated with anxiety may automatically activate the entire emotional category . ¹⁶