Primitive self protection system

In my last thread I talked very briefly about how our Emotions serve three basic functions, one of them being a self protection warning system against possible threats.  Fear, anxiety, anger, rage and hatred are all naturally occurring emotions that due to the way they have evolved are very easily activated.

 Our minds are continually scanning for possible threats, even when we’re sleeping. We’ve all woken up with a start in the middle of the night because we heard a bump or a crash, and a mother is capable of hearing her child cry even though she is fast asleep. Our self protection system is always activated, humming away in the background and continually scanning for possible threats.

 When it does perceive a threatening situation, it automatically puts into motion our “fight or flight” process as our body prepares itself to either run from the threat or fight the threat, this creates changes in our body as our eyes dilate, blood flow is redirected from our digestive system to the big muscle groups like the biceps and quadriceps, not to mention the release of all number of hormones that throw our body out of balance, but will save our lives in a dangerous situation.

 All this takes place automatically without us being to able to do anything about it. Of course how you feel about emotions will affect how you react to having them, but more about that another day.

This process is automatic because it takes place deep inside our primitive mid brain where the Amygdala is in charge of emotional response. Information about a threatening external stimulus is transmitted through what is known as the ventral circuit, which is quick and automatic and completely bypasses the prefrontal cortex where reasoning is carried out.

 This has its benefits, as a slower more reflexive warning system would not have had much success in the evolution stakes. A warning system that needs to reflect and ponder would have been a disaster for survival. Imagine if you had to spend five minutes thinking about what to do when faced with a charging rhino, you or your genes wouldn’t have much of a future.

 Our self protection warning system has evolved to be quick and without thinking. It is designed to protect us and is not afraid to over exaggerate a threatening situation in order to “save us”. It will frequently make mistakes, preferring to make us run away from 9 unreal threats and go without dinner than make one fatal mistake and become the dinner of some predator.  

Of course all is not sabre tooth tigers and packs of hungry wolves. We humans are social creatures by nature and have to interact with each other on a daily basis. Our minds tendency to over estimate danger is also carried over to social situations, where we may see individuals or other groups as a threat. This is a natural tendency and happens automatically and our mind needs to be trained not to see everything and everyone as possible threats, as this can affect our quality of life.

 Sometimes we have to overcome fear. There is a great Buddhist saying that “to overcome a fear you have to face a fear”. This is a concept known to behavioural therapists as exposure and is a technique often used for overcoming fears and phobias. The idea being that you purposely expose yourself to your fears. In this case the level of anxiety will steadily rise, but after about 10 minutes will eventually start to drop.

Usually what we do when we feel threatened is to try to avoid the source of the threat, be it snakes, spiders or public speaking. The relief that we feel from avoiding the situation is known as a negative reforcer, that is, I take action to get rid of emotions I don’t like. The next time I feel the unpleasant emotion; there is a big possibility that I will repeat the avoiding behaviour that served me well in the past.

 The problem is that the relief I feel from avoiding the threat may prevent me from hanging around for a bit and realising that it wasn’t such a threat as my mind was telling me it was. Often, to change the way we feel about something, first we have to change our behaviour. As Chinese philosopher Laozi quoted “A journey of a thousand miles begins with the first step”. It certainly doesn’t begin with navel gazing, lamenting the past or worrying about the future. We can do that on the journey.