Very brief reminders of being loved and cared for can soothe an overly-anxious brain…
August 20, 2023. This is for MG, BH, …TD, and DK. PS and EB… you too. It’s in all your inboxes….
Here is a super fast hack that might soothe, and normalize your nervous system when it feels under threat.
A quick remembrance of being loved and cared for can reduce your brain’s response to an apparently threatening circumstance in the moment, according to recent research.
Researchers have discovered that when humans are briefly shown pictures of other humans being loved and cared for, their brain’s threat response faded.
Directly after viewing soothing images of humans being loved and cared for, the same study subjects were shown threatening facial expressions, or flashcards of words which would normally evoke a robust response in the amygdala, a structure which is key to how we process emotions related to safety and survival.
Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) was used to measure how the brain responded
The results showed that very brief reminders of being loved and cared for reduced the threat response from the amygdala to the threatening stimuli.
For the Amygdalae of those humans who were particularly anxious (GAD?) the images of love and support were particularly powerful in soothing the nervous system.
Get this! The soothing images worked even when humans were not focused on them!
Dr Anke Karl, one of the study’s authors, explained:
“A number of mental health conditions such as posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) are characterized by hypervigilance to threatening information, which is associated with excessive negative emotional responses, amygdala activation and a restricted ability to regulate these emotions and self-sooth.
These new research findings may help to explain why, for example, successful recovery from psychological trauma is highly associated with levels of perceived social support individuals receive.
We are now building on these findings to refine existing treatments for PTSD to boost feelings of being safe and supported in order to improve coping with traumatic memories.”
The study builds on earlier research which suggested that painful sensations alleviate when humans are reminded that they are loved and cared for.
Implications for couples therapy… I love you and I’m on your side…
The way a conversation begins is the way it ends 94% of the time. If humans did a better job recognizing the criticality of conveying to your partner… especially under the present difficult circumstances… ( i.e. one or both of you are flooded)… that love abides!…
Then you would both endure far less meaningless suffering as you glide through time.
I can help with that.
Be well, and Godspeed.
RESEARCH:
Attachment-security priming attenuates amygdala activation to social and linguistic threat
Luke Norman, Natalia Lawrence, Andrew Iles, Abdelmalek Benattayallah, Anke Karl
Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience, Volume 10, Issue 6, June 2015, Pages 832–839, https://doi.org/10.1093/scan/nsu127
