18 October 2021
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Whoever we are, we all go through life vulnerable to emotions such as anxiety, depression and anger. Why?
Because we are human and we are all faced with managing a tricky brain that has evolved over hundreds of millions of years to keep us safe, rather than happy. In fact, the brain’s most important job is keeping us alive. To accomplish this, it devotes most of its time trying to predict what will happen next, so that the body can be prepared for any eventuality. Helping young people to better understand and manage their brains and its emotions, is therefore one of the most helpful and effective skills a young person can develop.
Dr Paul Gilbert, the founder of Compassion Focused Therapy (CFT), draws on findings from neuroscience and suggests that we have three key emotional systems:
The Threat system (relates to emotions such as anxiety, anger, shame and disgust). This is our brain’s alarm system. It alerts us when we are in danger, for example when we feel a surge of fear when crossing the road and a car approaches at speed. It acts when we feel angry if someone has treated us unfairly. It’s also triggered when we feel disgust in response to noticing that the food we are eating has gone off. From the threat system’s perspective, it is doing its job if it alerts us to danger 10 times for only one time where there is a real threat. If we think about the world our ancestors inhabited, this threat system was there to keep them safe. Without this 24-hour surveillance system in place, they wouldn’t have survived for very long.
Because we are a social species, living in a group and being accepted by others is crucial to our survival. For our ancestors, being cast out of the group would have been a direct threat to our survival. Because of this, our threat systems are therefore always on the lookout for any signs that we may be rejected by our social group.
The Drive system (associated with emotions that stimulate us to go out and compete, achieve and accomplish). This is the pleasure system which gives us a sense of reward or excitement when we achieve an important goal. Often people’s drive systems are activated by such things as work, sports, engaging in hobbies and spending time with friends. The Drive system is associated with dopamine - our body’s chemical for reward.
The Soothing system (linked to emotions that give rise to feelings of contentment, safeness and slowing down). This is also a pleasure-based system, but it is focused on helping us slow down, feel safe, contented and socially connected. This system is associated with being around others that we love and trust and is triggered by anything that soothes us such as hugs, taking a bath, stroking a pet, yoga and meditation. The soothing system releases the hormone Oxytocin which increases feelings of love and safeness.
For many young people with mental health problems, these three systems of emotions are out of balance. When this is the case, one of the goals of CBT may be to help clients get a better sense of where they might be out of balance. For example, we would invite young people to notice whether their feelings of safeness and connection to others (soothing system) is under-developed. Over time, this can be corrected and resources and strengths can be developed to help clients live a more balanced emotional life.
We need all three emotional systems. If I left home without my threat system, within 5 minutes I’d probably get run over. The threat system however doesn’t need too much attention, as it’s very good at taking care of itself. However, the drive and soothing systems often need to be nurtured and we have to put some effort in to their up-keep. The three systems work best when they’re balanced. This is because the two pleasure systems (especially the soothing system) can work to calm down feelings of physical threat. We can imagine the threat system being like a bike speeding down a hill with the soothing system acting as the brake.
The first step is to help young people acknowledge feelings of threat, but not allow these emotions to run the show. It’s okay to feel anxious, scared, angry or tearful, but it’s helpful for young people to notice where the threat mind is taking them. Are they getting caught up in worries about the future or regrets about the past? One trick is to thank the threat system for its’ help: “Thanks threat-mind for pointing this out to me, but now I’m going to turn the volume down” The volume can be reduced through the use of grounding techniques such as noticing three things you can hear, see or touch right now.
A further grounding technique to regulate the emotional system is rhythmic breathing. The trick is to breathe slowly, smoothly and evenly. For example, young people can count 1-2-3-4 on the in-breath, hold for 1 to 2 seconds and then count 1-2-3-4-5-6 on the out-breath, with a little pause at the end, if that feels right for them. Everyone has a different rhythm that feels soothing for them, so it’s good for young people to experiment to find out what works for them. Two minutes of rhythmic breathing can do wonders for calming the body and brain and will allow for clearer thinking and problem solving. You may find it helpful to try out some free apps such as iBreathe and Breathe+ Simple Breath Trainer.
What’s important to remember is that while soothing regulates threat, it doesn’t make threat go away. It does however allow young people to get into the mindset where they can make decisions to solve what needs to be done to manage the threat.
I hope this has given you some information about how our emotions work and some ideas about how to re-balance and manage emotions.
Article date 18 October 2021
Article written by Dr Kate Donoghue, Director, Bristol CBT Clinic