Recovery from Social Anxiety and Related Conditions
Robert F Mullen, PhD
Director/ReChanneling
For each new subscriber, ReChanneling donates $25 for workshop scholarships.
Self-Directed Neuroplasticity
We flourish through hemispheric synchronization, which is the collaboration of our brain’s hemispheres to achieve optimal coherence, i.e., a rational, emotional brain.
While it was once thought that emotions were the sole province of the right hemisphere of the brain, while rational thought was the purview of the left. This has been disproved, as both hemispheres work together to perform these functions. However, for the sake of easy comprehension, we separate the functions of the left hemisphere (rational thought) from the right hemisphere (emotional response and reaction).
Our emotional quotient (EQ), or emotional intelligence, is the ability to perceive, manage, control, or communicate our emotions. Those of us experiencing social anxiety ostensibly have a low EQ because it requires rational thinking, a faculty anathema to our condition. We compensate for this lacuna by enhancing our left brain’s intellectual attributes to balance our right brain’s creative pursuits.
In other words, we enhance the ability to perceive, manage, and communicate by balancing our emotions with rational thought. Through active and proactive neuroplasticity, we aggressively and consciously utilize both brain hemispheres—a harmony crucial to recovery from social anxiety and related conditions. This unification helps us achieve optimal coherence, producing a well-balanced, rationally creative neurological oneness.
The neural network of a person experiencing social anxiety disorder is replete with toxic information established by the negative trajectory of childhood disturbance, core and intermediate beliefs, negativity bias, SAD onset, cognitive biases, and irrational thoughts and behaviors expressed by our emotionally driven negative self-appraisal. Until recovery, they are impervious to rational explanation.
“Dr. Mullen is doing impressive work helping the world. He is the pioneer of proactive neuroplasticity utilizing DRNI – deliberate, repetitive, neural information.” – WeVoice (Madrid, Málaga)
Emotional intelligence is not a fixed trait, but a skill that can be developed and strengthened. By being aware of our feelings and those around us, and using this to inform our thoughts and behaviors, we combine our left brain’s intelligence with our right brain’s emotions. Emotional intelligence is being aware of feelings in ourselves and those around us and using this awareness to inform our thoughts and behaviors. Individuals with high emotional intelligence motivate themselves, read social cues effectively, and build strong relationships.
Proactive and active neuroplasticity, described by psychiatrist Jeffrey M. Schwartz as “self-directed neuroplasticity[1],” plays a vital role in the recovery process. Social anxiety persists by provoking irrational thoughts and behaviors, feeding off our fears and negative self-appraisal.
Proactive neuroplasticity targets the rational, analytical, and quantitative capabilities of our brain through DRNI. This process counters defeatist self-appraisal by continually offering positive statements, such as “I am capable and strong” or “I can handle this situation confidently.” These affirmations rationally offset the abundance of experiential adverse information present in our neural network.
By implementing productive responses to our emotionally-driven social anxiety, we create a balance between our irrational thoughts and behaviors and their rational analysis—a harmony crucial to recovery and stability. This coalescence produces a well-balanced, rationally creative neurological unity.
Neuroplasticity
Neuroplasticity, the quality of being easily shaped or molded, is the scientific evidence of our brain’s continuous adaptation and restructuring to information. It is what makes learning and registering new experiences possible. Our brain is a dynamic and malleable neural network, constantly realigning its pathways and rebuilding its circuits in response to registered stimuli. Scientists refer to neuroplasticity as structural remodeling of the brain.
All registered information notifies our neural network to realign, generating a correlated change in behavior and perspective. What is significant is our ability to accelerate and consolidate the process by compelling our brain to repattern its neural circuitry. Neural circuitry refers to the interconnected network of neurons in our brain that are responsible for transmitting and processing information. By repatterning this circuitry, we can effectively change our thoughts and behaviors.
Behaviorist B. F. Skinner claimed that the neural input of information was more important than the amount; he was half right. That was before we realized how our brain reacts to stimuli – how repeated neural input results in repeated firing. Neurons don’t act by themselves but through circuits that strengthen or weaken their connections based on electrical activity. Like muscles, the more repetitions, the more robust the energy of the information.
Accelerated Learning
We accelerate and consolidate learning and unlearning by compelling our brains to restructure their neural circuitry. This fact confirms that our emotional well-being is self-determined. While we are impacted by outside forces over which we have limited to no control—life’s vicissitudes, physical deterioration, and hostilities—our psychological health is determined by how we react and respond to adversity, fortune, and opportunity.
The onus of recovery and self-empowerment rests with us. We control our emotional well-being, empowering ourselves through self-directed neuroplasticity.
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“It is one of the best investments I have made in myself, and I will
continue to improve and benefit from it for the rest of my life.” – Nick P.
Three Forms of Human Neuroplasticity
Human neuroplasticity happens in three forms.
Reactive neuroplasticity is our brain’s involuntary response to stimuli we absorb but do not focus on or initiate: a car alarm, lightning, or the smell of baked goods. Our neural network, which is the complex network of neurons in our brain, automatically restructures to what happens around us.
However, not all information impacts our neural network. Most information is insignificant. It does not register. For something to register, it must be detected (noticed). Our brain’s metabolism only accumulates registered information.
The same applies to the ongoing onslaught of negativity. Our neural network receives around two million bits of data per second but can process roughly 126 bits. If our brain does not register the information, it does not stimulate or alert the receptor neuron and, therefore, does not negatively impact our neural network.
Active neuroplasticity happens through intentional pursuits like creating, yoga, and journaling. We control active neuroplasticity because we consciously choose the activity. Active neuroplasticity replaces our self-destructive thoughts and behaviors, creating healthy new mindsets, skills, and abilities by rediscovering and utilizing the character strengths, virtues, and attributes disrupted by our emotional malfunction.
Beyond the synthetic and creative products of active neuroplasticity is our altruistic and compassionate social behavior, e.g., teaching, compassion, and random acts of kindness. Contributions to others and society are extraordinary assets to neural restructuring. The social interconnectedness established by caring interconnectivity augments the regeneration of our self-esteem and self-appreciation.
Proactive neuroplasticity is rapid, concentrated neurological stimulation that we deliberately initiate to offset the abundance of negative information in our brain’s metabolism. It’s a process that changes the polarity of our neural network from toxic to positive.
We execute this through DRNI – the deliberate, repetitive neural input of information. This involves consciously and repeatedly exposing ourselves to positive stimuli, thoughts, or experiences to rewire our neural circuitry and promote positive neural restructuring.
Proactive and active neuroplasticity are not passive reactions to external stimuli but conscious and deliberate transformations of our thoughts and behaviors. We, as individuals, are active participants in this process, provoking change rather than simply reacting to it.
We prioritize our bodies through exercise and healthy habits. And we enhance our cognitive functions through creativity and other mental pursuits. We nurture our spirit through introspection, meditation, and compassion. This self-care reminds us to appreciate and value ourselves and others in our journey of positive behavioral change.
Dr. Mullen’s Speaking Engagements
Neural Benefits
When we register information, it triggers a receptor neuron that sends electrical signals to a sensory neuron, which stimulates presynaptic neurons. These neurons then forward the information to millions of participating neurons, generating a cellular chain reaction in multiple interconnected brain areas.
Deliberate neuroplasticity is a transformative process that not only changes our thoughts and behaviors but activates long-term potentiation. This activity increases the strength of nerve impulses along the connecting pathways, generating more energy. It also creates higher levels of BDNF (brain-derived neurotrophic factors), proteins associated with improved cognitive functioning, mental health, and memory.
The neural chain reaction generated by repetition reciprocates, in abundance, the energy of the information. Millions of neurons amplify the electrical activity on a massive scale. Positive information in, positive energy reciprocated in abundance. This process underscores the importance of positive reinforcement in neural restructuring.
The heightened activity of our axon pathways boosts the neurotransmissions of chemical hormones, feeding us GABA for relaxation, dopamine for pleasure and motivation, endorphins for self-esteem, and serotonin for a sense of well-being. Acetylcholine supports neuroplasticity, glutamate enhances memory, and noradrenalin improves concentration.
To date, neuroscientists have discovered over fifty chemical hormones.
Our ability to deliberately accelerate and consolidate learning and unlearning is significant. Over the years, our brain structures itself around negative neural input, which refers to the information that our brain processes and reacts to in a negative way.
This negative input forms in childhood and increases exponentially due to our inherent negative bias and the negative trajectory of our condition. The primary objective in recovery and self-empowerment is replacing or overwhelming negative information with positive neural input.
While proactive neuroplasticity attends to the rational and analytical, active neuroplasticity addresses the emotional, social, and spiritual. Proactive and active neuroplasticity do not compete but support each other in hemispheric synchronization, forming a balanced and harmonious approach to positive behavioral change.
Necessary Collaboration
Proactive and active neuroplasticity play supportive roles in positively transforming our thoughts and behaviors. Their collaboration is a harmonious dance, reinforcing and strengthening neural restructuring.
Proactive neuroplasticity (rational, analytical, quantitative) is self-oriented; active neuroplasticity (emotional, creative, qualitative) is self- and other-oriented. They create a balanced approach, as our two hemispheres work harmoniously. This collaboration is necessary for a comprehensive and practical approach to positive behavioral change.
Gestalt psychology and radical behaviorism not only observe behaviors but also embrace the diversity of human thought and experience. This interdisciplinary approach calls for a collaboration of science, philosophy, and psychology.
Philosophy, existentially defined, welcomes religious and spiritual insight. Neuroscience supports proactive neuroplasticity, and psychology supports active neuroplasticity. Philosophy, existentially defined, welcomes religious and spiritual insight. The whole, of course, is greater than the sum of its parts.
Self-Esteem/Self-Appreciation
Self-esteem, a crucial aspect of our mental well-being, is the awareness of our qualities and character, including our imperfections. It encompasses our self-perception, our perception of how others view us, and how we process this information. A healthy level of self-esteem reassures us of our worth, significance, and desirability.
As we consolidate our self-regard and recognize our unique contributions, we are inspired to share them with others. Self-appreciation, therefore, is the natural progression of self-esteem.
Proactive and active neuroplasticity are necessary formidable tools for neural restructuring, the regeneration of our self-esteem and appreciation, and the corresponding positive transformation of our thoughts and behaviors.
[1] Schwartz, J. M., & Begley, S. (2002). The Mind and the Brain: Neuroplasticity and the Power of Mental Force. ReganBooks.
Proactive Neuroplasticity YouTube Series
WHY IS YOUR SUPPORT SO NECESSARY AND ESSENTIAL? ReChanneling develops and implements programs to (1) mitigate symptoms of social anxiety and related conditions and (2) pursue personal goals and objectives – harnessing our intrinsic aptitude for extraordinary living. Our paradigmatic approach targets the personality through empathy, collaboration, and program integration utilizing neuroscience and psychology including proactive neuroplasticity, cognitive-behavioral modification, positive psychology, and techniques designed to regenerate self-esteem. All donations support scholarships for groups and workshops.
INDIVIDUAL RECOVERY. The symptoms of social anxiety make it challenging for some to participate in a collective workshop. Dr. Mullen works one-on-one with a select group of individuals uneasy in a group setting. ReChanneling offers scholarships to accommodate the costs. What is missed in group activities is provided in our monthly, no-cost Graduate Recovery Group. In this supportive community, graduates interact with others who have completed the program. Contact ‘rmullenphd@gmail.com’.
Committing to recovery is one of the hardest things you will ever do.
It takes enormous courage and the realization that you are of value,
consequential, and deserving of happiness.