I think, therefore I am

Are you distressed, or primed for action? It may be a matter of perspective – and neuroscience. Kimberley Wilson, a psychologist and author of ‘How To Build A Healthy Brain’, o ers her insights…

If I told you that you are the creator of your experience, what would you say? Would you roll your eyes and write me off as another woo-woo merchant with a ropey understanding of physics? Please don’t – because that’s not the kind of creation I am talking about. The kind of creation I’m referring to is grounded in the neuroscience of how your brain predicts and interprets the world around you and your place in it.

Here’s a simple example: You’re about to give a talk. You are prepared and you know your subject. Turning your attention to your body, you notice that your breathing is shallow and you have butterflies. Now, tell me, are you feeling anxious or excited? Physiologically, there is no di erence. That surge in cortisol as you step up to the mic is simply your body readying for action – to provide your limbs and brain with the extra energy needed to perform. Whether you experience those sensations as anxiety or excitement is largely a matter of interpretation based on the concepts that are most readily available to you.

If your primary examples or social messages skew towards an interpretation of nervousness, you will be more inclined to ‘feel’ anxious. Alternatively, if someone explained those sensations to you as being ‘pumped’ or ‘charged’ while you were growing up, those same sensations would be transformed into a sense of anticipation. Same sensations, di erent experience.

I hope you can see why this matters. It’s the di erence between saying ‘I feel nervous’ and ‘I feel ready’. It’s the di erence between feeling disempowered and feeling enabled. These interpretations a ect performance, your enjoyment of the experience and the likelihood of you doing it again. Whether you call it grit or a growth mindset, learning to associate those physical sensations with a sense of positive challenge or readiness for action helps foster psychological resilience.

Here’s what worries me: well-intentioned but misguided scope creep for psychological or mental health terminology, particularly on social media, means that people o ering seemingly benign advice might be undermining others’ resilience.

Messages intended to reduce stigma, such as ‘it’s OK to feel anxious’ may, for some, increase the likelihood of an interpretation of anxiety. I am not suggesting that all anxiety is a case of mistaken identity, but I am concerned that terms intended to describe specific mental health conditions are being generalised to normal sensations

– and that this all contributes to the pathologising of everyday life, and the erosion of wellbeing.

I suppose this is a word of caution. Clinically, we know that a person’s interpretation of their experience is as important as the experience itself. Therefore, we all need to be mindful of the mental health messages we expose ourselves to and the ones we reinforce.

Choose your concepts carefully – they have the power to create your world. kimberleywilson.co; @foodandpsych; ‘How To Build A Healthy Brain’ (Hodder & Stoughton, £16.99)