Running on the wrong fuel

Consider a simple analogy. Group the brain into two simple parts – the rational thinking part and the emotional brain (including the fight-or-flight anxiety response).

The rational thinking parts of the brain are very sophisticated. Not only do they regulate all of the autonomous processes which keep us alive – breathing, heart beats, digestion etc but they also allow us to be who we are – our personality, our skills and abilities etc. This in the car world would be the equivalent of the Rolls Royce – extremely sophisticated and requiring the very best fuel (5* supreme) in order to perform well

The emotional brain however tends to operate in a much simpler fashion - being either on or off. Thus, emotions tend to be extreme – in fact, if they were not, we would simply ignore them. When we are emotionally aroused we tend to act irrationally and our language will often be quite extreme – ‘everyone’ is talking about me, or I’ll ‘never’ get well. Our thinking becomes very black and white – simple, and demanding that we take action – virtually any kind of action, just do it!. Think of how quickly we become quite stupid when we are angry – we say and do things that we know we’ll regret – but we can’t stop ourselves from saying or doing them – we are driven to take action regardless of the consequences – our only intention is immediate survival. With such a simple (yet, surprisingly powerful) on-off type of engine this car would only require the cheapest available low grade fuel (2*)..

As long as appropriate fuels are provided to each part of the brain, the brain functions perfectly. However, the emotional brain is designed to interfere with the rational thinking brain – this is how it communicates the need to take some form of action.

Consider a strong positive emotion – love. When under the spell of this particular emotion, we definitely act irrationally and quite often over the top. Our family and friends forgive us our strange behaviour and explain it away simply by telling people that ‘we are in love’. Everyone receiving this information understands and accepts this as normal.

Now consider a strong negative emotion – anxiety. Again, we definitely act irrationally only this time the family and friends around us are worried and herd us towards the GP’s surgery, convinced we are ‘unwell’. As our society tends to use a medical model for human wellbeing, we are most likely to receive medication – we may even be told that this will alter our brain chemistry and calm us down.

However, if we recognise that the anxiety (or depression, panic-attacks, phobia, paranoia…etc) is simply the emotional brain trying to tell us that something is wrong, then we can begin to eliminate the cause rather than treat the anxiety as a medical condition. The ‘wrong fuel’ is simply a means to an end – not the ‘condition’. Human Givens therapy helps you rectify the cause quickly and effectively while you learn skills that will allow you to also deal with future similar issues thus preventing re-occurrence.