Posted by Carol on June 18, 2004 at 07:40:47
In Reply to: Re: Brain Disease, Mental Health & Choices_Consequences posted by Reader on May 24, 2004 at 16:40:45:
Brain diseases are defined by neurochemical conditions, such as extreme anxiety. Over time and in different cultures and situations, people develop a number of coping mechanisms for handling the discomfort of extreme anxiety. What you describe as secretive behavior is what I would call a coping mechanism--a way of managing the extreme anxiety associated with certain situations & relationships.
The thing about extreme anxiety states is that they aren't rational. If I am walking in a forest and a large grizzly bear suddenly crosses my path, whatever extreme anxiety arises in me at that point is a rational response to the present danger. The same thing could be said about losing my mother when I am six years old. However, if I hold on to the anxiety associated with losing my mother and it defines my responses to other intimate relationships, then my anxiety has become irrational.
The "brain disease" part of the problem is the extreme anxiety state. There is also a mental health issue, which involves the distorted perceptions and irrational beliefs associated with the anxiety state. Let's say I use secretiveness as a way to manage my fear of being abandoned by those I love & trust. However, just because my mother died (abandoned me) at age six, does not mean everyone who gets close to me will also leave. And managing my fear of abandonment through secretive behavior does not mean those whom I love & trust won't eventually leave me, either.
Very often, the coping behaviors we adopt to manage our worst fears become a mechanism by which we recreate the original trauma. We may deeply fear abandonment and behave in such a way that those who are close to us feel little recourse but to eventually abandon us. The idea here is one of "unresolved conflict." Cognitive behavioral therapy is aimed at bringing such conflicts into conscious awareness so that we can make different and better informed choices about our behavioral responses to situations and relationships that trigger anxiety states.