Thankyou Threat System for keeping me safe
Have you ever wondered why as human beings we feel anxiety? Fear? Anger? Disgust? They’re kind of a pain, so why have we evolved to experience them? Life would be much simpler if we didn’t.
And in some ways it would.
But in other ways we need them. Because these emotions are signals to alert us if something is wrong. Moreover they’re designed to be uncomfortable so that we pay attention to them and do something about it.
Our “Threat System”
These emotions are linked with our “threat system”. Compassion Focused Therapy (CFT) describes this as our alarm system, designed to alert us to potential threats.
The “old brain”
The threats system is part of the “old brain”. These structures have been around for many hundreds of thousands of years and are often referred to as the “mammalian brain”. They are tasked with the fundamentals in life:
safety
survival
seeking and securing resources
attachments to others
reproduction
What does the threat system do?
Our threat system is brilliant at getting us to pay attention to potential threats and react in order to minimise the risk of harm. They trigger threat responses that either activate us (fight or flight), or deactivate us (freeze, flop, fawn). For more on these, check out the blog North Tyneside Yoga — Coast Connections: Psychology and Yoga.
The trouble is, our brains have evolved and we aren’t only governed by the “old brain”. We also have the “new brain” which are relatively newer parts of the brain. This includes areas such as the pre-frontal cortex, evolutionary “new kids of the block”. It’s these areas of the brain that separate us from other mammals. They allow us to do all of the astonishing things we can do as human beings:
plan
reason
ruminate
learn from the past and plan for the future
apply logic
CFT’s “tricky brain”
Our brains as humans are amazing. But they can also add to our suffering. Paul Gilbert refers to it as the “tricky brain”, because it’s the interaction between the new and the old parts of the brain that can add to our distress.
Our old brain involves structures including the amygdala (hot spot for emotions) and the hippocampus (headquarters for memory). They are designed to react quickly and often reflexively. And in a life or death situation, this makes sense. We haven’t got time to sit and digest it, ponder on how to respond….we just need to act.
However, these same parts of the brain can be activated by perceived threats, as well as real ones. And this is where the new brain comes in. We can ruminate on something that’s happened a long time, that poses no current threat to us. Our thoughts and perceptions of it still feel very current and so can activate the old brain and all those uncomfortable emotions.
On the other end of the spectrum, we can imagine threats. Anticipating situations that have not even happened yet. And this is still enough to trigger our old brain into feeling the same as if it were happening. So this interaction can become “tricky”, adding to our suffering or emotional distress when at times it may not need to.
The impact of our “tricky brain”
We can dwell and ruminate on things that keep us locked in the past.
We can imagine future scenarios where terrible things happen (but haven’t actually happened).
We find we adopt safety behaviours to try and avoid potential threats.
And we feel it. It takes up energy, both in our minds and body.
This is ultimately down to our threat system being activated by these tricky interactions, and responding in the way it’s designed to. It’s “doing its job”. Ringing the alarm. Sending out those signals “Be careful, don’t let your guard down!” And, man alive, it’s hard to function when our threat system is activated. It rules the roost. And it’s designed to.
So thankyou, threat system, for doing what you’re designed to do. I appreciate you looking out for me.
But this is where the wisdom comes in handy.
Using CFT to help ease our suffering
The knowledge that our threat system can be activated at times when it doesn’t necessarily need to be is helpful. This is often due to interactions in our “tricky brain”.
Our threat system is designed on a “better safe than sorry” principle. It’s better to react as if it’s a bear in the woods, rather than hang about and check. The threats we tend to face now (whether that be physical, verbal, social, emotional) are rather different from a bear ready to pounce. Yet our threat system still acts first (and thinks later). And so it can become hypersensitive over time.
Link with trauma
If we’ve faced adversity and stress and trauma, our threat system learns that it needs to keep it’s guard up more than ever. It can be set off by the slightest thing. That’s when we notice that we’re feeling on edge a lot of the time. Anxious. Struggling to relax. Irritable. Problems sleeping. Angry.
It’s often at this point that I get to meet people in therapy, who have had enough of living like this. And want to explore what can help.
For me, exploring and understanding psychoeducation around our brains and how wonderful (and wonderfully tricky) they are is often the first step. It brings with it a sense of “ah, ok – I get what’s going on”. And it brings in more compassion, opening up avenues for how things can start to feel different.
How to soothe our threat system
When we can understand why our threat system has become hypersensitive, we can be more tolerant of a threat system that is on high alert. This hypersensitivity is typically because of what life has been like and our perception of our experiences. Moreover, we can then start to consider the things that help the threat system to learn that it’s ok now. In this moment, we are safe. Things like:
breathing
imagery
processing past trauma e.g. using EMDR
nurturing our self-compassion
coping skills
vagus nerve stimulation (check out my Instagram for a 5 day Vagus nerve activation challenge)
mindfulness
grounding techniques
There is so much out there that can help regulate us, it’s just a case of trying things and finding the things that work for us.
So – thankyou threat system for keeping me safe. I value you and appreciate your efforts. But you can take a break for a bit. I’ve got this.
If this resonates with you and you’d like to explore Compassion Focused Therapy further, please get in touch.