Sensitisation
‘Sensitisation’ describes a point at which we become more than normally reactive to a certain kind of stimulation.
We can become sensitised at three main levels:
- physically
- cognitively
- emotionally.
Physical sensitisation can be seen in conditions such as allergies (eg hay fever) where our body activates an auto-immune system reaction to a physical substance it has identified as a threat in a similar way to how an infection is identified.
The substance concerned may have previously produced no such reaction. Some allergy reactions may be so severe they actually threaten the life of the sufferer (eg asthma).
Where an allergy develops in childhood a sufferer may grow out of it but if it develops in adulthood recovery is rare. Thankfully medication and avoidance strategies help.
Other examples of physical sensitisation are the reactions we get by simply touching the same spot on our skin repeatedly (lightly with a pin does a good job of this) and RSI (Repetitive Strain Injury) whereby nerves are irritated and inflamed by repetitive micro-movements.
Cognitive sensitisation is the root initial cause of conditions such as obsessions and OCD. It is a process in which new thinking networks are set up in a bid to eradicate an unwanted thought or sets of thoughts.
Paradoxically this repeatedly generates the unwanted thoughts because the new ‘hunter’ thought patterns are designed to identify the target needing removal and recreate the unwanted thinking in order to do so. It is a self-defeating process..
We do not deliberately set up these additional thought patterns, by the way – we do it without realising what it is we just did.
Frustrated at our lack of success we may then become emotionally sensitised in a bid to win the war against these unwanted thoughts and their attached emotional responses..
Emotional sensitisation – the powerhouse that maintains all anxiety disorders.
Primary emotions are the emotions we produce in direct response to a real-life or imagined trigger. Sometimes, however, a primary emotional response is based around information we do not want to accept as real and if we reject the information we also tend to reject the primary emotional response attached to it (the reverse is also true – if we reject an emotional response we also reject thoughts attached).
In a bid to push the unwanted Primary emotional response away we produce a Secondary emotional response. Secondary emotional responses are the underlying driving force behind emotional issues. They create the same self-replicating model as that created when trying to un-think thoughts but this time it is a battle of energies within the body.
The Primary and Secondary responses trap each other into a continuous fight within the body.
All Three Levels of Sensitisation are the Result of Over-active ‘Feed-Forward’ Mechanisms
Our physical auto-immune system creates and distributes new anti-bodies on the basis of a single previous attack. If it makes errors by producing antibodies in regards to substances we actually want to be around it has the argument that producing antibodies unnecessarily five times, and getting it wrong, is better than not producing them the single time they are needed.
Our anti-thought and anti-emotional systems use cognitive bias and emotional hyper-arousal as their search and reaction tools for (allegedly) dealing with unwanted thoughts and feelings prior to their having any harmful affect on us.
Cognitive Bias
Scientists have conducted tests on various types of people that show our brains filter incoming information according to the way information is already being prioritised and processed by them.
One such test is called the Stroop Colour Word Interference Test in which subjects are asked to write down the text colour of various words presented.
The test reveals those words related to our current cognitive bias catch our attention and this leads to an increase in the time it takes to identify the text colour. Smokers slow down when it comes to smoking-related words; anxiety sufferers slow down when it comes to anxiety-related words.
Because the thoughts we wish not to have are linked to intense negative emotional responses they deeply affect our memories and dominate our thinking as we struggle to get rid of them.
They are prioritised in our cognitive bias and this bias then seeks information from the environment on everything regarding these thoughts.
Other tests have shown that even ‘positive’ information about slightly related issues will be fed into the network of fearful images and thoughts once this anxious cognitive bias has been established.
We are now cognitively sensitised and it is a self-replicating process.
Hyper-Arousal
Hyper-arousal is a state in which a creature is on emotional high alert while constantly scanning the environment for any sign of threat.
We are at greatest risk of becoming hyper-aroused when the actual threat appears at irregular intervals. If we know when a threat is due to appear we will adjust to the rhythm of its occurrence - but if we are not sure ‘what happens next or when’ we can easily go into the hyper-aroused state.
In this state we feel ‘jumpy’ and minor things trigger off intense emotional reactions. We can remain in exhausted preparation for an alleged ‘battle to come’ like this for years.
These systems are ‘feed-forward’ mechanisms meant to prevent damage from an unwanted intruder – but they create the problem themselves.
Thankfully there is a way to escape the condition – De-sensitisation.
Cognitive and Emotional De-sensitisation
Systematic De-sensitisation (also known as Exposure Therapy - I am sure there are other names for it as well!) concerns itself with removing Cognitive and Emotional Sensitisation by repeatedly facing the triggers to which they are related and then entering the emotions and thoughts attached to those triggers repeatedly until the response becomes ‘habituated’.
Habituation is the point at which an unwanted emotional response becomes extinct and no longer compels our thoughts to keep paying attention to it. At this point we have become emotionally neutral to the trigger.
This may sound like some kind of ‘scientific approach discovered in the 1960s’ – which was when studies on it started becoming most popular – but the truth is it has been a part of the human condition since humans have existed and the same pattern is adopted by the rest of the animal kingdom – particularly for mammals – in order to heal from it.
In simple terms the process is:
- you are frightened of a place because you once spotted a predator there
- for whatever reason you have to go to that place but you are reluctant because it is still highly likely there is a predator there
- you go to the place a lot of times and find there is no predator but you are still very emotional about the place
- eventually because you have continually repeating evidence there is no predator your Unconscious adapts to the new information and you stop being frightened.
This reverses both cognitive bias and hyper-arousal – and the good news is if applied with disciplined determination it is often successful and prevents further recurrence.
We learn to let go of thoughts about unpleasant things as they pass through our Conscious and let go of emotional responses so they can pass through and out of our bodies.
So Why is this Simple Process
so Difficult when it Comes to Healing Anxiety Disorders?
No-one wants to use this healing method unnecessarily because it is time-consuming, mentally confusing and always painful. It is painful on several levels: painful thoughts; painful feelings and can produce really unpleasant physical reactions (such as change in stomach acid balance and heart palpitations).
However, if a person has tried other available methods without success they may then choose this more painful route because they decide they need to get on with it and are willing to try anything.
As a sufferer changes their sense of direction from avoidance to going into their feelings and towards their unwanted thoughts they find their arguments against doing so suddenly come to life and imagery arises that causes them to feel much worse than the emotional place they were at previously – the thing to focus on here is the difference.
Any change in approach and in feeling intensity should be seen as progress – even if it feels worse.
The reason for the increased intensity in feelings is because we have begun to release trapped emotional energy. One day you will find the majority of your cognitive bias and emotional hyper-arousal has gone.
You are left with a much deeper understanding of life and who you are in relation to it.
Self-Awareness is Everything
If you use De-sensitisation to remove an anxiety disorder you will most likely be able to identify the circumstances (your environment and how you reacted to it) you were experiencing when your sensitisation occurred.
This is the genuine feed-forward information you need to focus on to prevent the other types of self-harming feed-forward systems establishing themselves again.
- Were you caught between two or more sets of values and did not know what direction to take for the best so remained frozen in a painful place?
- Was there a period you felt powerless or dominated by someone or something in life? Did they create an environment in which you did not know ‘what was coming next or when?’
- Did you worry yourself sick about something and this set you up for sensitisation?
- were there certain types of thoughts which you thought you should not think?
- have you come to accept your most intense feelings and come to realise these are linked in to your most important value systems and arise when your values are threatened?
When external reality presents the kinds of environments that lead you into this kind of situation again you will either acknowledge and move away from those environments or you will re-interpret them so you do not react in the same way.
Here’s a short YouTube video on the Stroop test:
Regards - Carl
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