The distinction between social anxiety and social anxiety disorder is in severity. We are not all affected by the same symptoms or relentlessness. The characteristics and traits are equivalent. These conditions originate homogeneously, their trajectories differentiated by environment, experience, and the diversity of human thought and behavior. While comorbidities dramatically benefit, the recovery methods identified are for social anxiety and social anxiety disorder, and reference to one includes the other.
Complementarity
Understanding the holistic nature of our being is a journey into the intricate web of our mind, body, spirit, and emotions – the components of our behavior. These elements of our human holism are not separate entities, but intimately interconnected, each influencing and shaping the others. This interconnectedness is the essence of our emotional well-being.
Defining Our Behavioral Components
It’s easy to provide basic definitions for mind, body, and emotions. Many of us confuse the term ‘spirit’ due to its association with religion and spirituality. In the context of recovery, ‘spirit’ refers to our ongoing emotional state or disposition that influences our perceptions, thoughts, and behaviors.
Emotions versus Spirit
Emotions are temporary outbursts or subjective responses to people, situations, and objects that trigger strong feelings and behavioral responses. Unlike emotions, which are typically intense and short-lived reactions to specific triggers, our spirit is a more enduring emotional state or disposition that is influenced by our fundamental, rigid beliefs.
These beliefs set the tone for interpreting and responding to the world around us, making our spirit a key aspect of our holistic health.
Complementarity refers to the interconnectedness and mutual influence of our behavioral components: mind, body, spirit, and emotions. Understanding this concept can equip us with the knowledge to manage stress effectively.
How does complementarity work? During a fear situation, something triggers us. A trigger refers to a thing, person, or event that elicits a reaction due to its association with some past trauma. This trigger or stimulus alerts our mind, body, spirit, and emotions simultaneously.
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)
Trauma Defined
Trauma can be a scary and misunderstood term. It refers to any disturbing experience that results in disruptive or discomforting feelings intense enough to have a long-lasting adverse effect on our optimal functioning. These unsettling events activate the amygdala, which responds by sending out an alarm to multiple body systems to prepare for defense.
Mutual Interaction of Our Behavior Components
Let me provide a hypothetical example. During a fear situation, such as a social event, a trigger might generate automatic negative thoughts such as “No one will talk to me” or “I’ll do something stupid” (Mind). We express these thoughts through our reactions and responses (Emotions). We feel stress and other physical discomfort (Body). And we feel incompetent and inferior (Spirit).
This simultaneous mutual interaction is an example of complementarity in action.
Complementarity reflects the enduring interconnectedness of our four behavior components: mind, body, spirit, and emotions. Connection is the essence of mental health; disconnection is a sign of brokenness.
Utilizing Complementarity
How do we use complementarity to our advantage? We rechannel our anxiety or stress from one component to another. It’s crucial to recognize that we always have avenues of release for any form of discomfort. This awareness prepares us to manage stress effectively.
Through complementarity, we redirect unmanageable emotions – intense and overwhelming feelings that can disrupt our mental and emotional well-being – through physical activity, mental distractions, or spiritual contemplation. We engage in ‘B’ (physical activity), ‘C’ (mental distractions), or ‘D’ (mood reframing) to mitigate ‘A’ (the unmanageable emotion).
Examples of Complementarity
We walk to calm our angst, meditate when agitated, or solve a crossword puzzle to counter anxiety. If the component under stress is physical (such as palpitations, nausea, or tremors), we focus on a mental, emotional, or dispositional (spirit) state to compensate. If it is mental, we focus on a physical, emotional, or dispositional state.
Our mind, body, spirit, and emotions are not isolated entities, but interconnected. They act jointly, each influencing the other, although not always in equal measure. Depending on the situation and subjective response, one component takes precedence over the others.
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.
Consider the aftermath of a freeway fender-bender. Our brain becomes chaotic with competing thoughts. Physically, we experience discomfort, if not whiplash. We’re emotionally angry and frustrated and suddenly aware of our mortality.
If we are in pain, the physical likely takes precedence. If we are slightly inebriated, it might be the mental (can I talk my way out of it?), it might be the emotional fear of being arrested, or it might be the dispositional sense of futility.
Managing Complementarity
There are various techniques we learn in recovery to help us redirect our stress. Cognitive reframing, a powerful tool in CBT, enables us to identify our anxiety triggers and gain control over our perspective. For example, if a social event triggers feelings of inadequacy, we can reframe it as an opportunity to improve our social skills, thereby boosting our confidence.
Grounding is a practical coping strategy that involves redirecting situational anxiety by intentionally focusing on the objects, sounds, smells, tastes, and sensations around us. Other methods include using distractions and diversions, focusing on character and persona to change our perspective, and controlled breathing to shift energy by stimulating our vagus nerve.
As we journey through recovery, we gain the power to consciously manipulate our mind, body, spirit, and emotions to our advantage. This enables us to redirect or reframe the anxiety that threatens our emotional well-being. In a broader sense, we take control of our reactions and responses rather than allowing our condition to dominate our thoughts and behavior.
WHY IS YOUR SUPPORT SO NECESSARY AND ESSENTIAL?ReChanneling develops and conducts programs to alleviate the symptoms of social anxiety and help individuals tap into their innate potential for extraordinary living. Our unique approach focuses on understanding personality through empathy and collaboration, integrating neuroscience and psychology. This includes proactive neuroplasticity, cognitive-behavioral modification, positive psychology, and techniques designed to reclaim and rebuild self-esteem. Every contribution, no matter the size, supports individuals striving to make a positive change in their own lives and the lives of others. All donations go towards 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 absent in group activities is provided in our monthly 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.
The reason for posting this introduction to our book is twofold. Hopefully, it will generate constructive criticism from my readers, as I thrive on your wisdom and experiences. It also allows us to conveniently direct publishers who have expressed interest in the book while the editor worksthrough twenty-six chapters of final draft material.
Introduction
Tough Love and Common Sense
In his book, Optimal Happiness, Roman Russo provides the analogy of the person who falls into an open sewer and can’t climb out. Imagine that person is you. A therapist peers into the hole, and you ask for help. She tosses you a shovel so you can dig your way out. A priest stops by, and you beg him to save you. He tells you to say five Hail Marys and the Act of Contrition. Your friends stop by, and you ask for support. They mock your stupidity and move on. I come across you flailing about in the sewer. What do I do? I jump into the hole with you. How does that help, you ask? I spent years in the same sewer, and I know the way out.
I have been where you are now. Your experiences are not alien to me; your fears have been my fears. There’s nothing you’ve felt or done that I haven’t encountered or considered. I have felt your pain and frustration. Living with severe social anxiety disorder for much of my life, I was, like you, bewildered, angry, and depressed – a social pariah convinced there was something wrong with me. I know firsthand the controlling, devious, and manipulative nature of our condition.
No one is better qualified to help you than someone who spent half his life in the sewer and found the way out. You must experience it to know it. My personal experience is a testament to the effectiveness of the strategies I present.
The acronym SAD is disturbingly appropriate. Experiencing social anxiety makes us unhappy. It saddens us. I became so disgusted and self-loathing that I returned to university, disciplined myself in psychology and philosophy, and devoted myself to the study of this self-destructive and hateful entity.
A one-size-fits-all approach to recovery is ineffective. We are unique individuals with diverse experiences, environments, beliefs, needs, and aspirations. Social anxiety is unlike any other emotional malfunction. Experts continue to underrate, misunderstand, and misdiagnose it. Our reactions and responses are counterintuitive to standard recovery methods, rendering our efforts counterproductive.
The recovery approaches in this book draw from the rich diversity of human thought and experience, integrating science, psychology, philosophy, and, by extension, religious and spiritual insights to provide a comprehensive framework for understanding the human condition.
Neuroscience supports proactive and active neuroplasticity, key components of the program. Cognitive behavior modification and positive psychology focus on optimal functioning from a Western perspective, while Eastern practices contribute critical therapeutic benefits through Abhidharma psychology and principles of ethical behavior.
I revised the standard methodology to apply specifically to our condition. I pioneered the deliberate, repetitive neural input (DRNI) of information that is the foundation of proactive neuroplasticity – rapid, concentrated positive stimulation to offset the abundance of negative information in our brain’s metabolism.
And I created innovative approaches to rebuild and reclaim our self-esteem. I developed the character resume—a living record of our strengths, virtues, attributes, and achievements. A character resume is a journey of rediscovery and a catalyst for reclaiming and rebuilding our self-esteem by emphasizing our assets over our shortcomings. An evolving chronicle of our value and significance, the character resume exemplifies the wellness model of mental health.
In our workshops, we developed the Feared-Situation Plan, which contains predetermined mechanisms and skills tailored to address and alleviate potential threats to specific individual challenging situations.
I have shared these innovative techniques individually with clients and in groups and workshops. I have helped hundreds of individuals find their way out of the sewer, and I am here to help you do the same.
The Static Versus Dynamic SAD Person
There are two distinctive types of individuals experiencing SAD: the Static and the Dynamic. The static SAD individual is immobilized, perceptually trapped in their distressing state, either unable or unwilling to break free. Dynamic SAD individuals are in a constant state of flux, actively seeking ways to manage their condition and enhance their lives.
In his extensive examination of emotional malfunction, Aaron Beck, the pioneer of cognitive-behavioral therapy, posited that anxiety and depression generate feelings of helplessness, hopelessness, and unworthiness. The concept of undesirability revealed itself in our SAD recovery workshops. These negative self-attributions make us feel undeserving of recovery.
Additionally, many motivated towards treatment claim they cannot afford it due to financial hardship. The high percentage of jobless people experiencing social anxiety is related to SAD-provoked job inefficiency and instability, greater absenteeism, job dissatisfaction, and frequent job changes. Individuals with SAD are more likely to be less educated, unmarried, and have lower socioeconomic status.
These individuals are my friends, colleagues, and associates. I love them unreservedly, yet with a pervading sadness, because I cannot help those who will not help themselves.
The Dynamic SAD individual is not resigned to their condition. Instead, we are actively engaged in our recovery, demonstrating remarkable resilience and determination. Here are some characteristics of those in recovery who inspire us with their courage and commitment to change.
The Dynamic SAD individual overcomes hopelessness with renewed optimism, reframing the inconceivable with possibility. We subvert our core sense of helplessness by reanimating our self-reliance, courage, and determination. Our confidence makes us approachable, which mitigates any irrational sense of undesirability. WE are aware of our worth and significance.
What is awareness? It is the recognition, comprehension, and acceptance of the validity of something. What is validity? The quality of being logically or factually sound. As psychologist Jocelyn Sze cleverly remarks, “Awareness works like a vaccine, gradually building psychological immunity against further harm.” The antithesis of awareness is mindlessness, a state resistant to learning.
Dynamic SAD individuals do not confront their fears; they embrace them. Instead of meeting them with hostility or competing with hubris, we willingly and enthusiastically acknowledge and accept them as challenges. Our experiences are, and always will be, part of our identity.
Embracing our condition is not acquiescence, resignation, or condoning; it is genuine acceptance of who we are – imperfect beings with strengths, shortcomings, and vulnerabilities. We embrace our totality, and in doing so, we enable ourselves to transform. This is not surrender; it’s taking control and owning our destiny.
We are curious and adventurous because we have embarked on a journey of discovery. We have opened our minds to new concepts and perspectives. And we are flexible and adaptable because those are the qualities of someone who fearlessly challenges what may lie ahead.
The Dynamic SAD individual is not just a problem-solver; we are creative thinkers. We are not just risk-takers; we are bungee jumpers. We are not just energetic; we are passionate. And we are not just empowered; we are the masters of our domain.
Dynamic SAD individuals are motivated to help others evolve and flourish. We were once helpless and hopeless, and we don’t want anyone else to experience those feelings. We are a community of compassionate individuals with shared goals, commitment, and determination. And we support, uplift, and inspire, creating a strong sense of community and support.
SAD will continue to sustain itself by inflicting anxiety and fear, but those emotions have no power on their own. We fuel them; we give them their energy. Without our sustenance, they cannot survive.
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.
Know Thyself
‘Know Thyself’ was inscribed upon the Temple of Apollo. Socrates aspired to it. Sun Tzu wrote, ‘If you know the enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles.’
It is essential to understand that we are not all affected by social anxiety to the same degree. The extent and severity of symptoms and characteristics are subjective. We are unique individuals with diverse backgrounds and environments.
Roughly 124 million U.S. adults and adolescents experience anxiety disorders. 60% of those also experience depression and other comorbidities like ADHD and PTSD. Far too many turn to substance abuse, as I did.
Repetition, Repetition
Don’t let the technical language in this book intimidate you. Much is just fancy jargon designed to maintain the power dynamic between doctor and patient. I will break it all down into simple, understandable terms. This book is not an academic exercise but a practical, straightforward, and easily digestible guide to recovery.
You will find information repeated ad nauseam. Repetition is a key factor in learning. Repetition enhances cognition, enabling more profound and more embedded learning. When we encounter new information, our brain forms weak connections between neurons processing that information. Repetition strengthens these connections and transfers learned information from short-term to long-term memory. Information islearned, relearned, and mastered.
Tough Love and Common Sense
Common sense and tough love are the two pivotal standards of this program. Tough love is compassionate concern expressed with rigor and precision to promote healthy and responsible behavior. It operates on the principle of confronting our challenges head-on to foster positive transformation.
Common Sense
Common sense, the ability to use sound judgment based on a cultivated awareness of the facts, is a powerful tool in overcoming the irrational thoughts and behaviors that sustain our social anxiety.
Irrationality is the overriding symptom of our condition. Our left brain, the locus of analytical and logical thinking, is overwhelmed by our right hemisphere’s emotional responses, leading to a psychological imbalance. In essence, the characteristics and traits of social anxiety supersede common sense.
Recovery Goal and Objectives
The primary goal of recovery from social anxiety is the alleviation of our irrational fears and anxieties. We have a comprehensive three-pronged approach to guide us.
Replace or overwhelm our negative thoughts and behaviors with healthy, productive ones.
Reconstruct our neural network through rapid, concentrated positive stimulation to offset the abundance of negative information in our brain’s metabolism.
Reclaim and rebuild our self-esteem and reintegrate into society.
The recovery process is not a series of isolated steps, but a unified journey. The three-pronged approach-replacing negative thoughts and behaviors, reconstructing our neural network, and rebuilding our self-esteem-is interdependent. Each element supports the others, creating a comprehensive strategy for recovery.
This interconnectedness means that every step we take towards one objective also advances the other two, presenting a holistic approach to recovery.
Admittedly, every book on recovery lacks elements of an interactive program. Collective exercises, role-playing, group discussions, and other communal activities cannot be realized on the written page. This lacuna highlights the importance of Socratic questioning, where our thoughts and behaviors are challenged through thoughtful, relevant, open-ended questions, enabling us to make rationally informed decisions.
Socratic Questioning
Socratic questioning is a powerful tool in the recovery process. It’s a form of disciplined personal inquiry that encourages expansive and reflective solutions, rather than simple yes-or-no answers. By engaging in critical thinking, we delve deeper into our thoughts, emotions, and behaviors. We challenge the validity of our perspectives to consider alternative viewpoints. This process of objective analysis, evaluation, and interpretation of our beliefs leads to the formation of rational and well-informed solutions.
The Paradox of Shame
Many people experiencing social anxiety possess a fierce reluctance to treatment. Many go to enormous lengths to remain ignorant or oblivious of SAD’s destructive capabilities, as if, by denying them, they do not exist or will somehow go away.
One of the primary reasons for this reticence is the unwarranted shame and guilt we carry for our condition. That is futile and unwarranted.
It is not our fault that we experience social anxiety. We did not ask for it, nor are we responsible for its happening. Our susceptibility to it occurred during early childhood, before we were cognizant of cause and effect. We are not accountable for the hand we were dealt.
We are, however, responsible for how we play the cards we are still holding onto.
And if you don’t think shame can have debilitating consequences on recovery, let me share TR’s story. Rather than attributing his social anxiety to a physically abusive father and emotionally detached mother, TR blamed himself for his childhood, citing that he was shy and more reclusive than his siblings, uninterested in sports and other activities preferred by his parents.
Blame and shame are closely aligned when the child blames themselves for the trauma they experience. Shame then predominates the child’s future identity. TR’s shame convinced him that he was not worthy of recovery. Once he was able to attribute his childhood trauma to his parents, he was able to dispel the groundless shame that blocked his healing.
Defense and the Indefensible
For some, aspects of our condition are challenging for our minds to manage. We develop defense mechanisms—unconscious strategies designed to protect us from our fears and apprehensions. We deny, avoid, and compensate rather than confront our problems. And we rationalize our conduct, project it onto others, or displace it by kicking the dog.
Cognitive distortions are defense mechanisms – exaggerated or irrational thought patterns that contribute to our anxiety and depression. We twist reality to reinforce or justify our toxic thoughts and behaviors. Throughout the book, we will identify and resolve the thirteen distortions particularly relevant to our condition.
We Travel This Road Together
We are all on this journey together. The path may be challenging, but it’s one we share. As we learn, practice, develop, and flourish, our shared experiences bind us, creating a network of support and understanding.
Change is indeed a formidable challenge. Habits, deeply ingrained, are not easily broken. We are psychologically and physiologically invested in them, and our very nature resists anything that disrupts their control. It’s like trying to give up your diazepam during the holidays.
Our brain’s inertia senses and combats any attempts at change, and our basal ganglia repel modification. This resistance must be shattered so that we can open ourselves to new ideas and concepts.
We begin by dissociating ourselves from our symptoms. We no longer define ourselves by our social anxiety. And we learn to define ourselves by our character strengths, virtues, attributes, and achievements.
Active Participation is Paramount
Recovery from social anxiety is not a passive process. It requires a specialized understanding of its complexity provided by someone who has experienced it firsthand. I will equip you with tools, but remember that it’s your journey, and your active participation is crucial. You will need to directly engage with the strategies and exercises provided and be open to making changes in your thinking and behavior. Your commitment to this process is key to your success.
We will harnessthe transformative power of neuroplasticity, which is our brain’s amazing ability to adapt and reorganize itself. By consciously compelling our brain to rewire its neural pathways, we counteract decades of negative thinking and accelerate the process of learning new, healthier ways of thinking and behaving.
Neuroplasticity strengthens neuron connections, generating more energy and producing higher levels of proteins for improved cognitive functioning. It helps reclaim and rebuild self-esteem and emotional regulation. It transmits chemical hormones associated with relaxation, concentration, pleasure, and motivation while reducing the influx of our fear and anxiety-provoking hormones.
Neuroplasticity is not a theoretical concept but a scientific reality that transforms our thoughts and behaviors, creating new mindsets, skills, and abilities.
Coping Mechanisms
Coping mechanisms are cognitive, emotional, and behavioral strategies we use to manage our emotions, reduce anxiety, and respond to stress. They range from practiced skills we learn in recovery, e.g., slow talk and visualization, to instinctual reactions to stress, such as hiking or listening to music. Cognitive coping mechanisms equip us to structure rational reactions and responses to our irrational thoughts. Behavioral coping mechanisms provide the means to modify our behaviors.
Reframing
Cognitive reframing, a powerful tool in CBT, enables us to identify our anxiety triggers and take control of our perspective. For instance, if a social event sparks feelings of inadequacy, we can reframe it as an opportunity to enhance our social skills, thereby boosting our confidence.
Every situation offers a multitude of perspectives. When we realize that we have the freedom to choose joy and positivity, it becomes a logical and liberating decision to seize the opportunity.
Grounding
Grounding is a coping mechanism that redirects situational anxiety and stress by consciously focusing on the objects, sounds, smells, tastes, and sensations that surround us.
We learn how to influence the vagus nerve through somatic exercises, such as controlled breathing, kinesthesia, and progressive muscle relaxation. A key element of the parasympathetic nervous system, our vagus nerve helps to relax us in stressful situations.
Rational Coping Statements
Rationalcoping statements are logical, self-affirming responses to our situational anxieties and automatic negative thoughts. For example, if we fear rejection in a social situation, our rational coping statements might be, “I belong here as much as anyone.” “I am valuable and significant.” “I am equal to anyone here.” “My fear is irrational.” These statements are designed to counteract the negative thoughts and feelings provoked by our negative self-appraisal
These are just a small sample of the coping mechanisms we will learn and practice in this book.
Boundaries
By setting boundaries, we establish the standards of treatment we expect and are entitled to. Boundaries shield us from invasions of our space, feelings, limitations, and expectations, preventing others from exploiting or taking advantage of us. In essence, by setting boundaries, we reclaim our power and assert our identity.
Reconstructing Our Neural Information
Changing habits, removing ourselves from hostile environments, and breaking patterns that disrupt our optimal functioning can be difficult. Of the two billion bits of data per second that surround our sensory systems, our conscious brain processes roughly ten bits. Inputting crafted and relevant information to ensure its noticeability is crucial. We will identify the criteria for creating practical and detailed information that positively reconstructs our neural network.
The most effective information is calculated and tailored to our intentions and motivations. Are we focused on a specific challenge? Are we reinforcing a personal attribute? And are we addressing our negative thoughts and behaviors? What is the ultimate milestone we want to achieve?
By setting clear, specific goals, we significantly enhance the quality of information that supports the desired outcome. Information or experiences that our brain notices and processes alert millions of neurons, accelerating and consolidating neural restructuring to offset the abundance of negative information in our brain’s metabolism.
Balancing our Neural Hemispheres
Hemispheric synchronization is the harmonious collaboration of our brain’s left and right hemispheres to achieve optimal coherence. Due to the emotional overload of our condition, we possess a low EQ (emotional intelligence), which refers to our ability to manage and respond to our own emotions and those of others. We learn how to harness the power of our left hemisphere’s analytical, problem-solving, and communication skills to balance our right brain’s irrational emotions and expressions.
The book will guide us in crafting a comprehensive plan to manage our situational triggers. We delve into questions such as: What is challenging for me under these circumstances? How do I feel (physically, intellectually, emotionally, and spiritually)?
What concerns or worries confront me? What is the worst outcome we believe could happen? And what might occur? Who or what do we avoid due to these feelings?
By identifying our triggers, we unveil the anxiety-provoking thoughts that surface in anticipation of or during our feared situations. This allows us to take control and devise a plan that includes pre-established coping mechanisms. As Ben Franklin wisely said, ‘Failing to plan is planning to fail.’
We also demonstrate the power and productivity of visualization. To our brain, visualizing is akin to doing it; the same cognitive processes are activated. Visualizing raising our left hand is neurally indistinguishable from physically raising our left hand. This technique not only readies us for anxiety-provoking situations but also boosts our confidence and reduces anticipatory anxiety, thereby increasing the likelihood of a successful outcome.
Establishing, Developing, and Maintaining Relationships
The desire for love and acceptance is at the heart of social anxiety, but our symptoms disrupt our ability to establish collegial and affectional bonds in almost any capacity. Human connection is crucial to emotional health.
Extensive research demonstrates that healthy social interaction strengthens our immune system and shields us from neurodegenerative disease. Socializing triggers the release of chemical hormones that boost our learning, concentration, and motivation.
Our fears of rejection and intimacy that hinder our ability to form and sustain healthy relationships are mitigated by reclaiming and rebuilding our self-esteem.
Self-Esteem
Abraham Maslow’s hierarchy of needs sheds light on how social anxiety’s negative trajectory affects our self-esteem. Certain preconditions must be met for healthy psychological development, including adequate sleep, security and safety, parental protection, and a healthy environment. Our childhood disturbance and environment subvert the satisfaction of these needs.
Rebuilding our self-esteem and reintegrating into society are primary objectives of recovery. Despite the disruption to ouroptimal development, the qualities that construct our self-esteem are not lost but are rudimentary or interrupted.Just as stimulating the unexercised muscles in an arm or leg reconditions it, we can also rebuild our self-esteem.
The byproduct of healthy self-esteem is self-compassion, a powerful tool that fosters a sense of awareness and empathy that we naturally extend to others. As caring and compassionate social beings, we are driven to reintegrate into society and pay it forward. But it’s equally important to extend this compassion to ourselves, recognizing that self-forgiveness is essential for growth and healthy relationships.
We learn to value ourselves and recognize our importance in the lives of others. We take care of ourselves so that we can take care of others. This act of self-care is not selfish, but a necessary step in maintaining healthy relationships, as it allows us to be our best selves for those we care about.
The Indispensability of Forgiveness
It’s impossible to gauge the severity of the harm we perpetrate upon another. We feel shame and guilt for committing the deed and for being the type of person who would do such a thing. These emotions are resolved by accepting responsibility, making direct or substitutional amends, and forgiving ourselves. Forgiveness liberates us from the past, releasing us from the weight of vengeance and vindictiveness.
Self-transgression is prevalent in social anxiety. We beat ourselves up daily. By forgiving ourselves, we reclaim our sense of worth, enabling us to move forward with strength and confidence.
Much of our negative neural information stems from the unsettled debris of shame and guilt that clouds our thoughts, influences our behaviors, and strains our relationships. This ‘unsettled debris’ refers to the lingering effects of past actions or experiences that continue to affect us.
Recovery requires letting go of our negative self-perspectives, expectations, and beliefs. It’s about freeing ourselves from the shackles of shame, guilt, and other hostile self-indulgences. Forgiveness opens us up to new possibilities, unencumbered by past acts. In the words of Mahatma Gandhi, “The weak can never forgive. Forgiveness is the attribute of the strong.”
When faced with challenges or obstacles, it is tempting to abandon the struggle and admit defeat. Stay the course, my friends. It becomes exponentially easier as we progress, and your determination is the key to your success.
Stop. Take A Break. Reward Yourself
We have been our harshest critic for too long. It’s crucial to give ourselves credit for the constructive changes we’re making. For every positive thought, attempt, or interaction, take a moment to congratulate yourself on your progress. 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.
Acknowledging and rewarding your efforts in our recovery is vital to your mental well-being. Self-reward is a tangible symbol of your progress. It triggers the release of positive hormones, including endorphins for relaxation, GABA and serotonin to quell anxiety, and dopamine for a sense of happiness and calm. Self-reward boosts your mood and fuels your motivation to keep pushing forward.
You are integral and interrelated to all things, the lifeblood of being, the ultimate, dynamic, and creative ground of the universe(s), with the power to lift the human spirit.
So, see a movie, visit Baskin-Robbins, brunch with a friend, or treat yourself to a day at the spa.
Then move on to Chapter One.
_________
About the Editor
Olalekan Raji’s most recent publication is A Gospel Breakthrough with Kenya’s Maasai. Olalekan is a freelance writer with the WORLD News Group. He is a human capacity development enthusiast with experience in fisheries and aquaculture, public speaking, social work, and church missions. He lives in Banjul, Gambia, with his wife and child.
WHY IS YOUR SUPPORT SO NECESSARY AND ESSENTIAL? ReChanneling develops and conducts programs to alleviate the symptoms of social anxiety and help individuals tap into their innate potential for extraordinary living. Our unique approach focuses on understanding personality through empathy and collaboration, integrating neuroscience and psychology. This includes proactive neuroplasticity, cognitive-behavioral modification, positive psychology, and techniques designed to reclaim and rebuild self-esteem. Every contribution, no matter the size, supports individuals striving to make a positive change in their own lives and the lives of others. All donations go towards 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 absent in group activities is provided in our monthly 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.
Publisher Comment
Your book—Tough Love and Common Sense: Recovery from Social Anxiety (working title)—sounds both timely and impactful, especially given your dual perspective as an academic behaviorist and someone with lived experience. The integration of traditional and non-traditional methodologies, supported by neuroscience, CBT, and positive psychology, combined with your real-world application through workshops, makes this a compelling addition to the self-help and mental health space. The inclusion of black-and-white diagrams will no doubt enhance accessibility and understanding for readers. It’s clear you’ve invested significant effort in developing this material, and the fact that your earlier work has already received positive reception strengthens the book’s potential for mass appeal. Karl Baushman Head of Publishing and Marketing Book Fuel
Are We Repressing, Suppressing, Denying, or Regressing?
This is a pre-edited excerpt from my upcoming book on social anxiety, tentatively titled A TOUGH LOVE AND COMMON SENSE APPROACH to Recovery from Social Anxiety.
Our deeply ingrained negative self-appraisal, provoked by social anxiety, can be emotionally challenging for our minds to manage. To neutralize this, we develop defense mechanisms, unconscious strategies designed to protect us from threats to our emotional well-being.
We deny, avoid, or compensate rather than identify the problem. We rationalize ourthoughts and behaviors, project them onto others, or displace them by kicking the dog.
Defense Mechanisms
When used as temporary safeguards, defense mechanisms provide an escape from situations that conflict with the self-image we create to sustain our mental stability. In fact, without defense mechanisms, we are susceptible to decompensation – a serious condition in which we are unable to cope with stress effectively, leading to a breakdown in our ability to function coherently.
Most defense mechanisms are healthy safeguards when dealing with transient trauma, but psychologically problematic when we persistently use them as strategies to avoid facing reality.
Recovery involves examining and analyzing how we exploit defense mechanisms to sustain our irrational thoughts and behaviors. By doing so, we become conscious of our escapisms and devise coping mechanisms to counteract them.
“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)
Six defense mechanisms are particularly pertinent to social anxiety: compensation (overachieving to conceal our feelings of inadequacy), denial (refusing to acknowledge a problem), displacement (taking our frustrations out on others), dissociation (mentally distancing ourselves from unmanageable situations), projection (attributing our defects to others), and the associated triad of repression, suppression, and regression.
It’s the last three that we focus on in this writing.
Many confuse repression with regression. Repression is a process where we unknowingly suppress traumatic memories or thoughts that our minds find too challenging to handle. In psychology, repression refers to the process by which we prevent specific thoughts, memories, or feelings from surfacing into conscious awareness.
While repression may shield us from immediate distress, it’s crucial to understand that continuing exposure can lead to enduring psychological issues. These self-concealed memories and emotions, buried in our unconscious, subtly shape our thoughts and actions.
For instance, a repressed memory of a past failure could breed self-doubt in similar situations, or a buried traumatic event might introduce us to specific triggers without our conscious knowledge.
These events can stir up anxiety, stress, and depression, underscoring the profound and potentially long-term implications of repression on our mental health. It’s essential to address these issues to prevent them from developing into enduring psychological problems.
“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.
Suppression
Suppression is a voluntary form of repression. It’s a deliberate choice to subdue painful thoughts and memories to deal with them at a more appropriate time. This conscious control over our thoughts and emotions is a powerful tool in recovery, as it enables us to address and resolve the issues that have been temporarily suppressed.
Suppression and Dissociation
The distinction between suppression and dissociation in recovery is also essential to understand. Suppression is a conscious choice to postpone dealing with specific distressing thoughts and behaviors. Dissociation, as used in recovery, is a deliberate decision to mentally separate ourselves from the symptoms of our condition to address them dispassionately and objectively.
Understanding these nuances can provide a deeper insight into our psychological processes during recovery, making us more knowledgeable and better equipped to handle our emotional issues.
Repression and Denial
Repression is often confused with the defense mechanism, denial, in which we refuse to admit to unacceptable thoughts and behaviors, even with evidence to the contrary. Denial involves a conscious refusal to accept the truth.
For example, a person in denial about their addiction may disacknowledge their problem despite clear evidence. Repression, on the other hand, involves unconscious mental dismissal. It’s like the mind’s way of protecting us from overwhelming trauma by temporarily pushing it out of conscious awareness.
Repression and Regression
We often conflate regression with repression. Regression is reverting to an earlier or less mature stage of psychological development, where we feel safe from emotional conflict. Repression is a psychological attempt to unconsciously forget or block distressing memories, thoughts, or desires.
Both are psychological attempts to unconsciously forget or block distressing memories, thoughts, or desires. However, regression is a more severe psychological issue that requires specialized treatment, something a traditional recovery program does not adequately provide.
How do we identify the defense mechanisms we use to avoid dealing with our enduring or precipitating issues? We want to ask ourselves, are we repressing, suppressing, denying, or deliberately dissociating? The earlier stage of psychosexual development that identifies regression will require more specialized help.
It’s a bit like recognizing a familiar face in a crowd. You may not be able to explain exactly how you know, but you do. Similarly, we learn to recognize our defense mechanisms when we see them in action.
This suggests, correctly, that increased self-awareness is necessary to identify, comprehend, and accept our use of defense mechanisms to avoid facing the true nature of our traumatic thoughts and experiences. It’s important to note that during the recovery process, we learn specific coping skills that help reduce our mental and emotional reliance on defense mechanisms.
WHY IS YOUR SUPPORT SO NECESSARY AND ESSENTIAL? ReChanneling develops and implements programs aimed at (1) alleviating symptoms of social anxiety and related conditions and (2) helping individuals tap into their innate potential for extraordinary living. Our unique approach focuses on understanding personality through empathy and collaboration, integrating neuroscience and psychology. This includes proactive neuroplasticity, cognitive-behavioral modification, positive psychology, and techniques designed to rebuild self-esteem. Every contribution, no matter the size, supports individuals striving to make a positive change in their own lives and the lives of others. All donations go towards 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.
I was recently chatting with Stephanie from Singing Gecko on one of her posts. And she mentioned my comment was Stoic and optimistic and I absolutely loved that. But before I go into this story, I want to take a minute to shoutout Stephanie. She is such a cool person. Her posts really make me think and she has an awesome vibe. Do check out her blog. Okay, now back to how Stoicism saved my mental health.
Basically her comment reminded me that I am in fact a Stoic and have practised Stoicism for years now. I first learnt about it in my first year of university when I took a philosophy course. It really stood out to me because it was the first time I had heard a philosophical school of thought that perfectly encompassed my own beliefs. And the more I read about it, the more I agreed with what I was reading.
Over time, I began to include Stoic practices in my life and saw a major shift in my mental health. But first, let’s talk about Stoicism. I’m sure most people that know are interested in philosophy or know basic philosophical schools will be familiar with Stoicism. But for those that may not be, I’ve shared a little bit about Stoicism and a Wikipedia link if you would like to read more about it.
What Is Stoicism?
“Stoicism is a school of Hellenistic philosophy that flourished in Ancient Greece and Ancient Rome. The Stoics believed that the practice of virtue is enough to achieve eudaimonia: a well-lived life. The Stoics identified the path to achieving it with a life spent practicing the four cardinal virtues in everyday life — prudence, fortitude, temperance, and justice — as well as living in accordance with nature. It was founded in the ancient Agora of Athens by Zeno of Citium around 300 BCE.
Alongside Aristotle’s ethics, the Stoic tradition forms one of the major founding approaches to virtue ethics. The Stoics are especially known for teaching that “virtue is the only good” for human beings, and that external things, such as health, wealth, and pleasure, are not good or bad in themselves (adiaphora) but have value as “material for virtue to act upon”.
Many Stoics—such as Seneca and Epictetus—emphasized that because “virtue is sufficient for happiness”, a sage would be emotionally resilient to misfortune. The Stoics also believed that certain destructive emotions resulted from errors of judgment, and people should aim to maintain a will (called prohairesis) that is “in accordance with nature”. Because of this, the Stoics thought the best indication of an individual’s philosophy was not what a person said but how the person behaved.
To live a good life, one had to understand the rules of the natural order since they believed everything was rooted in nature.” (Source: Wikipedia)
How Stoicism Saved My Mental Health
So, now that you have a better understanding of Stoicism we can get into how Stoicism saved my mental health and has pretty much changed my life over the last few years. For those of you that don’t know, I was diagnosed with depression and anxiety as a teenager. So that’s what I’ll be referencing throughout the post. Anyway, this is how Stoicism saved my mental health:
Acceptance
One major aspect of Stoicism is that Stoics believe that we have free will but also that there are things out of our control. Basically, we believe in destiny, that things are pre-determined. However, how we choose to perceive things is up to us. Realising this was a giant game changer for me.
Growing up, I was always someone that needed control. I like things to be perfect, everything has its place. When things don’t go exactly as planned and even if there’s a slight hitch I would go into absolute anxiety mode. However, I have become so much more calm now when things don’t go as planned. Of course, I’m not perfect at it and I don’t think perfection is achievable. But I accept things that come my way. I experience the negative emotions associated with it and then I process and let them go. I don’t let it debilitate me.
This has been a huge game-changer for my anxiety. I’m no longer meticulously plan every tiny aspect of my life because I’m terrified I’ll do something wrong if I don’t. Can you imagine how exhausting it was for me to be doing that before? But no more. Now, I let life do its thing because I understand that being on anxiety mode 24/7 is not going to change my destiny. But how I choose to react will. I control what I can and I accept what I can’t
Stoic Exercises/Practices
There are a number of Stoic practices that those that believe in Stoicism try to include into their life. Today, I want to talk about two that I practice that have helped me so much with my mental health.
The first one is negative visualisation. This is a technique where you periodically imagine losing the things you value (like your job, health, or loved ones). I know, this sounds super grim and trust me it’s not for everyone. But hear me out. This made my life so much easier and decreased my anxiety immensely. I used to be so anxious all the time about bad things happening. Losing people I love, losing my health, not doing well in school, losing clients etc. But this practice has helped me picture the worst again and again until it’s no longer as anxiety inducing for me. I have finally come to terms with the fact that it’s a part of life that sometimes we do lose things we value. But we can’t let that stop us, we have to stay strong and keep going even when we hit rock bottom.
Another practice that I have added to my routine is voluntary discomfort. Stoics often engage in practices that voluntarily make life harder to build resilience and remind themselves that discomfort is not inherently bad. Earlier, when my anxiety was at its worst any sort of discomfort would ruin my day and I would shy away from it. I realised that this was actually a trauma response.
For me, voluntary discomfort is about doing social things because that makes me very uncomfortable. A few years ago, even leaving the house would give me anxiety. Now, I go out all the time. Sometimes on my own just to have a relaxing mental health day. I’m no longer scared to dine alone, shop alone, talk to new people. Things that would have petrified me have now become enjoyable.
Courage
This was a big one for me and one that was a major trigger for my depression. I’ve always been one of those people that are extremely sensitive to fighting or confrontation. That’s a huge trigger for my PTSD. But I’m also someone that takes their morals and ethics really seriously. When someone does something I believe is wrong or harming someone else, I feel unsettled. But I would never confront people about their behaviour before. Especially narcissists. Now, I’m not longer afraid of confrontation. I still avoid it when I can but when I need to say something, I do it.
Acting in accordance with virtue, even in the face of adversity is an important part of Stoicism. And it’s what taught me to stand up for myself and those that couldn’t stand up for themselves. I’m really proud of how far I’ve come. And thanks to no longer bottling everything up and setting healthy boundaries, my depression and anxiety have gotten so much better. Instead of being depressed that the world sucks, I can now stand up and fight for things to get better.
Moderation and Neutrality
Exercising moderation in all things and avoiding excess is another things I learnt from Stoicism. I used to see things as very black and white before I began actively practicing Stoicism. And that was a really depressing way to see the world. It made me very pessimistic and unhappy.
Now, I understand that things are much more complex. Nothing is black and white, most things are grey. Which is why it’s important to try to stay neutral and objective. Don’t get to a place where you’re on an unrealistic extreme.
As for moderation, I think I’ve generally been a pretty moderate person but over time I have become much less materialistic. I was never that materialistic but I did like occasionally to splurge on things I was interested in like books, skincare, makeup etc. Now, I put a lot more importance on people and memories instead of stuff.
The Bigger Picture
One thing I did a lot of reading and reflecting about is living according to nature. For Stoics, this means understanding the natural world and our place within it. It involves recognising that life is unpredictable and transient. Change is a constant part of it. And that is why it’s so important to learn to accept that and be prepared instead of holding on to the past.
Figuring out my place in the world also helped me recognise just how insignificant I am. Which again, I know sounds a little depressing but it wasn’t for me. It had the opposite effect. I was no longer insecure about those little flaws I saw in the mirror, about my weight, my hair, my body. Because none of that mattered and most people probably didn’t even notice or care about those things. I was just a tiny part of a big world. This did wonders for my social anxiety.
Constant Growth
Wisdom and understanding what is truly important in life is one of the cornerstones of Stoicism. Stoics often practice mindfulness and reflection. Regularly reflecting on your thoughts, actions, and responses helps Stoics become more self-aware. This practice encourages us to examine our judgments and adjust them to align with virtue.
I’ve talked about meditation, mindfulness and reflection quite a lot in my mental health related posts so I won’t go into too much detail again on this one. The post has already become so much longer than I expected it to be. But basically, reflecting on my day and trying to be a better version of myself each day has helped me immensely with my mental health. It’s helped me understand myself and those around me. And most importantly, it’s helped me become a better person which in turn makes me a lot more confident than I used to be. I know what I stand for and don’t look to others to define me.
Final Thoughts
That’s how Stoicism saved my mental health and helped me be the person I’ve become today. I hope you enjoyed this post. I don’t talk about my philosophical beliefs much because I feel like people wouldn’t care too much or would maybe not find that interesting. People that love philosophy love it but those that don’t really don’t. But since a lot of my readers do enjoy my mental health related posts, I thought this would be interesting to them. And maybe a different perspective because I don’t see many people talking about Stoicism in relation to mental health. But for me the two are interrelated and it was important for me to tell my story of how Stoicism saved my mental health.
Disclaimer: If you or someone you love are experiencing mental health problems please talk to a professional or someone you trust. Please seek help if you feel that it is necessary. There is absolutely nothing wrong with needing help.
Lifesfinewhine, a timely and popular website, is a beacon of hope for those navigating mental health issues. Its producer, P.J. Gudka, was diagnosed with depression and generalized anxiety as a teenager. Through research and self-reflection, she has gained a profound understanding of mental health illnesses and the stigma that often surrounds them. Her latest book, All the Words I Kept Inside, is a transformative collection of poetry that encourages readers to delve deep within themselves and confront their darkest thoughts. It takes the inner dread, disappointment, and heartache we all experience and reveals the words of the heart, inspiring hope and transformation.
If you have a story or perspective to share, we encourage you to submit a post for ReChanneling’s website. Please contact rmullenphd@gmail.com to learn more about the submission process.
Unable to cope with fear and uncertainty, a person resorts to denial, repression, compromise, and hides behind the mask of a false self. ― Kilroy J. Oldster, Dead Todd Scrolls
Defense Mechanisms
Understanding and applying coping mechanisms can significantly empower us to alleviate stress and reduce the release of fear and anxiety-inducing hormones. Recovery-oriented coping mechanisms, such as distractions and projecting positive outcomes, give us a sense of control when confronting fearful situations.
Maladaptive coping mechanisms, which we all use at some point, are known as defense mechanisms. These are temporary strategies we unconsciously employ to handle triggers our minds are unequipped to manage.
Defense mechanisms are mostly unconscious and automatic safeguards against stressful situations—psychological reactions designed to protect us from trauma. Although these psychological responses defend us from our fears and anxieties, they are not long-term solutions.
Examples of such mechanisms include denial, conversion, projection, and repression.
Without coping mechanisms, defensive or otherwise, we can experiencedecompensation – the inability to generate effective psychological coping mechanisms in response to stress – resulting in personality disturbance or disintegration.
The difference between defense and coping mechanisms is that the latter are adaptive and promote emotional well-being and recovery. For instance, avoiding a social situation due to fear of criticism and rejection would be considered a defense mechanism, while confronting the feared situation by employing positive self-talk, mindfulness, and social skills training is adopting coping mechanisms.
It is important to remember that although coping and defense mechanisms do not address the root causes of our fears and anxieties, they can provide limited emotional relief. Like an analgesic that temporarily alleviates physical pain, these mechanisms can positively influence our emotional well-being and help rebuild our self-esteem as we navigate our mental health journey. However, it’s crucial to understand and address the root causes.
“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.
Notwithstanding their label, many defense mechanisms support recovery when utilized appropriately. Some, like avoidance, humor,and isolation, need no explanation. Others, such as compensation and dissociation, have positive values in recovery when employed appropriately.
Compensation is when we overachieve in one area of our lives to offset perceived failures in another. For example, a poor student may become a star athlete. We compensate for our negative thoughts and behaviors by channeling our efforts into healthy, productive accomplishments. This process helps rebuild our self-esteem as we focus on our strengths, virtues, and attributes rather than the aspects of ourselves affected by social anxiety.
In essence, we leverage our best qualities to counteract any perceived deficits in self-esteem caused by our social anxiety.
“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)
Dissociation
In psychological terms, dissociation refers to the experience of detaching from reality. Dissociation can range from mild emotional detachment to more significant disconnection from physical and emotional trauma. Dissociation helps people manage their emotional well-being by separating their thoughts, memories, feelings, and actions from distressing situation(s).
In less severe cases, we might dissociate by daydreaming or losing ourselves in a good book or movie, which can temporarily relieve stress.
In recovery, we practice deliberate dissociation from the symptoms of social anxiety. This act allows us to separate ourselves from the negative aspects of our condition to focus on our character assets. It provides a sense of control and confidence to objectively analyze our thoughts and behaviors to respond rationally and productively.
When our identity remains intertwined with social anxiety, consciously dissociating from the symptoms of our condition is a functional and productive approach.
Dissociation
Dissociation helps us recognize that we are not defined by our condition’s adversities but rather by our resilience, assets, and determination. It is a deliberate act rather than the unconscious responses linked to our automatic negative thoughts (ANTs).
Theoretically, when we disassociate, parts of our brain become more active and others less active. To regenerate our self-esteem, we energize the positive aspects of our character over the adverse self-appraisal of our condition.
For those who dispute my use of dissociation as frivolous, substitute the words disconnect, separate, uncouple, disunite, or liberate.
When we remain entangled with our social anxiety disorder, we often see ourselves as helpless, hopeless, undesirable, and worthless. These core and intermediate beliefs, shaped by childhood experiences and reinforced by our condition, become the nemesis of our self-appraisal.
By dissociating from social anxiety, we step away from self-targeting to objectively analyze our irrational thoughts and behaviors, leading to more rational and productive responses.
This shift from a disease model to a wellness model is significant. The disease model focuses on the problem, while the wellness model—rooted in humanistic and positive psychologies—emphasizes the solution. It defines health as physical, mental, and social well-being rather than merely the absence of disease or infirmity. This change in perspective fosters optimism for our recovery and reveals opportunities and possibilities.
It’s important to remember that we are not our social anxiety; we are individuals experiencing social anxiety. We do not identify as the injured limb when we break our leg. We view it as something that requires healing. The same principle applies to our recovery from social anxiety. Dissociation is not a sign of weakness; it is a tool we use to distance ourselves from our condition and take proactive steps toward healing.
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. No matter the size, every contribution supports someone striving to make a difference in their lives and those of others. 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.
Maybe the journey isn’t so much about becoming anything. Maybe it is about un-becoming everything that isn’t really you, so you can be who you were meant to be in the first place. – Paul Coelho
Our character comprises the mental, emotional, and moral qualities distinctive to our individuality. Traditional psychology and its extensions use the term “character” to refer to our patterns of behavioral traits such as passive-aggressive, narcissistic, anal, hysterical, borderline, and so on. The pathographic or disease model of mental healthcare, the modus operandi for centuries, continues to be the overriding psychological perspective, focusing on the biological and neurological origins of mental illness, i.e., the study of the origins of our harmful behaviors.
The wellness model, a pivotal concept in early positive psychology (1998-), shifted the focus from the pathography of mental illness to the healthy aspects of behavior – our character strengths, virtues, and attributes. It emphasized that character is not just a collection of traits but a dynamic expression of positive thoughts, feelings, and behaviors that underscore our emotional, mental, and moral character.
Positive psychology 2.0, a corrective evolution, embraced both positive and negative aspects of our character, recognizing the dialectical opposition of human experience. It proposed that optimal human functioning is not just about positivity but about living a balanced and meaningful life, engaging fully with our positive and negative aspects.
The next and current wave of positive psychology (3.0) broadened the scope of research and practice beyond the individual to include relationships, groups, organizations, and societies – how our character and values reflect and contribute to the community to which we belong, influence, and are influenced.
“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)
Character Strengths, Virtues, and Attributes
Positive psychology identifies 24 character strengths universally recognized for creating individual stability and resilience. These strengths are not just traits, but powerful tools that can empower us to overcome challenges and lead a fulfilling life.
These strengths are classified into six distinct virtues: wisdom, courage, humanity, justice, temperance, and transcendence.
Positive attributes refer to behavioral moralities contributing to our character and emotional well-being.
Recovery Goal and Objectives
The primary goal of recovery from social anxiety and related conditions is the alleviation of our irrational fears and anxieties. We execute these goals through a three-pronged, complementary approach.
Replace or overwhelm our negative thoughts and behaviors with healthy, productive ones.
Produce rapid, concentrated positive stimulation to offset the abundance of negative information in our brain’s metabolism.
Regenerate our self-esteem through positive reinforcement and mindfulness of our assets, utilizing methods targeted toward our individuality.
From childhood disturbance to our current emotional status, social anxiety has inundated our neural network with adverse stimuli through negative core and intermediate beliefs, SAD symptomatology, and cognitive biases, leading to destructive, irrational thoughts and behaviors. We call this SAD’s negative trajectory. Our brain’s current metabolism is replete with abundant negative information.
Why Create a Character Resumé?
Childhood disturbances generate negative core beliefs that influence our intermediate attitudes, rules, and assumptions. Our attitudes refer to our emotions, convictions, and behaviors. Rules are the principles or regulations that affect our behaviors, and assumptions are what we believe is accurate and authentic information.
Maladaptive attributions produce a cognitive bias that compels us to misinterpret information and make self-destructive decisions. Since humans are hard-wired with a negativity bias, we already respond favorably to adversity. Add our SAD-induced negative trajectory, and our neural network is replete with toxic information.
We convey this through our thoughts and behaviors and the words we use to express them.
Adversity consumes and conditions us throughout our lives. According to reliable sources, we have heard the word “no” from our parents roughly 135,000 times by age sixteen. Some of us use the same unfortunate characterizations repeatedly. It is not just the words we say aloud in criticism and conversations. The self-annihilating words we silently call ourselves support our adverse thoughts and behaviors.
A character resumé, a tool created and expanded during treatment, manages the three significant recovery objectives. It is a document that lists our positive qualities, achievements, and memories as reminders of our strengths and capabilities. Through introspection and memory work, we become mindful of the qualities that social anxiety’s overwhelming negativity has subverted.
This renewed awareness aids in replacing and offsetting our negative thoughts and behaviors with healthy, productive ones. Through proactive neuroplasticity, they become a vital component of the repetitive input of positive information into our neural network. Additionally, mindfulness and reinforcement of these assets dramatically regenerate our self-esteem.
Replace
Our goal is not just to replace or offset our adverse thoughts and behaviors but to empower ourselves with healthy, productive ones. We construct our character resuméwith positive qualities, achievements, and memories to counter the abundance of negative self-beliefs acquired throughout life.
We retrieve and become mindful of them through recovery approaches, e.g., personal introspection and inventory, memory work, cognitive comprehension, and other tools and techniques. This process requires determination and commitment, but the rewards are immense.
Restructure
Proactive neuroplasticity is a powerful tool that produces rapid neurological stimulation to change the polarity of our neural network through the deliberate, repetitive neural input (DRNI) of information. In simpler terms, it’s the process of intentionally rewiring our brain by repeatedly exposing it to positive information.
Our brain receives around two million bits of data per second but processes roughly 126 bits, so providing substantial positive information, which we can pull from our character resumé, is essential.
A deliberate act is premeditated; we initiate and control the process. Repetition accelerates and consolidates neural renewal and connectivity. Sound, reasonable, goal-focused, and unconditional information determines its strength and integrity. The positive traits we include in our character resumé generate the most efficient words and statements to accelerate and consolidate the process of neural restructuring.
Regenerate
Regeneration is the process of renewing or restoring something damaged or underproduced. Due to our negative self-analysis, we tend to repress, misplace, and forget our inherent and developed assets. These self-qualities (e.g., confidence, reliance, compassion, and other self-hyphenates) are damaged but not lost.
Despite the disruptions in our optimal development, the qualities that establish our self-esteem are not lost. They may be latent or dormant but can be developed and restored. Disruption interrupts productivity, but it does not destroy it.
Like stimulating the unexercised muscles in our arms or legs, our self-esteem can be regenerated.
“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.
Supports Multiple Learning Styles
Learning styles are the methods clients use to understand and retain information. Creating a carefully crafted character resumé that identifies our positive qualities and achievements satisfies multiple learning styles and increases awareness and retention. A character resumé supports auditory learning through the repetition of positive neural input, visual learning through patterns and colors, verbal learning through the written word, logical learning through the patterns and logic of the outline, and linguistic learning through reading, writing, and listening.
Positive Psychology in Recovery
Positive psychology (1.0), which focuses on character strengths, virtues, and attributes, is a powerful tool in recovery. By recognizing and emphasizing our positive aspects, we counter the abundance of neural negativity and adverse self-appraisal.
When extended, positive psychology’s 24-character strengths provide a diverse array of attributes that can empower the client, shifting the focus from negative to positive. This shift is not just a change, it’s an inspiration, a motivation to embrace our potential and worth.
PP 2.0 and PP 3.0 are essential recovery components but do not directly contribute to our character resumé. However, they factor strongly in the evolution of our recovery.
Positive Psychology 2.0
Recovery is not just about recognizing our strengths, virtues, attributes, and achievements. It’s also about acknowledging our shortcomings. This balanced perspective is critical to repairing our brokenness and moving forward.
Notwithstanding, due to decades of negative self-appraisal perpetrated by social anxiety, our neural network is already grossly imbalanced by negativity, and we are already abundantly aware of our flaws and deficiencies, real and perceptual.
Additionally, recovery is based on identifying the irrational fears and anxieties that perpetuate our thoughts and behaviors and establish our automatic negative thoughts (ANTs). PP 2.0 equips us with the tools to navigate these challenges.
Positive Psychology 3.0
Positive psychology 3.0broadened the scope of research and practice beyond the individual to include relationships, groups, communities, organizations, and societies – how we contribute to the community.
Self-esteem, a crucial aspect of our recovery, 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 and significance.
Our renewed awareness leads to self-compassion and self-appreciation. As we recognize our unique contributions, we are inspired and motivated to share them with others. Interconnectedness is a natural and significant progression of self-esteem, fostering a sense of caring and empathy.
Positive psychology plays a significant role in our recovery journey. It’s not just about self-care but about understanding our worth and potential and championing these self-beliefs in others. This moral evolution is a natural development of recovery, and positive psychology is a critical player in this process.
Method Integration
It’s crucial to understand that positive psychology is just one component of an effective recovery program. A comprehensive plan includes closely related programs such as cognitive-behavioral therapy, active and proactive neuroplasticity, recovery-oriented cognitive therapy, schema therapy, cognitive-behavioral modification, acceptance and commitment therapy, rational emotional behavior therapy, and gradual exposure therapy. Recognizing the role of positive psychology in this comprehensive context underscores the effectiveness of a well-rounded recovery plan.
Elements of a Character Resumé
What goes into our character resumé? The answer is anything and everything that stimulates a positive personal response. The character resumé is not a static document but an evolving, living entity. Entries can include our rediscovered character strengths, virtues, and attributes; positive personal affirmations; positive autobiography; rational responses to our automatic negative thoughts (ANTs), happy memories; things we enjoy; and self-esteem self-analysis or other self-esteem inventories.
Positive Personal Affirmations. PPAs are self-motivating and empowering statements that help us focus on goals, challenge negative, self-defeating beliefs, and reprogram our subconscious minds. Providing all the neural benefits of positive reinforcement, PPAs self-describe who and what we aspire to in our emotional development.
PPAs are rational, reasonable, possible, positive, unconditional, problem-focused, brief, and first-person present or future time. Think of PPA’s as aspirations or self-fulfilling prophecies that, through deliberate repetition, help replace our abundance of negative with positive neural information. Practicing positive personal affirmations is a highly effective form of deliberate, repetitive neural input of information.
Positive Autobiography. Our positive autobiography helps regenerate mindfulness of our successes, achievements, contributions, personal milestones, talents, charitable deeds, and service to others. Mindfully retrieving these positive events and occasions encourages us to recognize and embrace the extraordinariness of our lives, confirming that we are valuable, desirable, consequential, and worthy of all the good things life offers.
Rational Coping Statements are the logical, self-affirming responses to our situational fears, anxieties, and automatic negative thoughts. Example: If we fear rejection in a social situation, rational responses might be, “I belong here as much as anyone.” “I am valuable and significant.” “I am equal to anyone here.” “My fear is irrational.” We execute rational responses through the following process.
Identify our Feared Situation. Where are we when we feel anxious or fearful, and what activities are involved? What are we thinking? What might we be doing? Who and what impacts these insecure feelings?
Identify our Associated Fear(s). One way to identify our fears (anxieties) is to ask ourselves: What is problematic about the situation? How do I feel (physically, intellectually, emotionally, spiritually)? What is my specific concern or worry? What is the worst thing that could happen to me? What do I imagine will happen to me?
Unmask our Corresponding ANTs. How do we express our fear or anxiety? What are our involuntary emotional expressions or images? How do we negatively self-label? What do we tell ourselves? “I am incompetent.” “I am stupid.” “I am undesirable.”
Examine and Analyze Our Fear(s) and ANTs. What are the origins of our fears and anxieties? How do we express them? Discovery approaches include cognitive comprehension, introspection, psychoeducation, and the vertical arrow technique.
Generate Rational Coping Statements. We become mindful of the irrationality and self-destructive nature of our associated fears, anxieties, and corresponding ANTs. We unmask, examine, and analyze the cognitive distortions and maladaptive that validate or reinforce them. Then, we devise rational responses to counter their false assumptions.
Happy Memories and Things We Enjoy. These two subjective lists are developed and expanded throughout the recovery program as introspection and other positive recovery methods reclaim them from the recesses of our minds. Due to our cognitive biases and distortions, we forget the pride, joy, and satisfaction these events and experiences bring to our thoughts, behaviors, and positive patterns within our neural network. Happy memories and joyful experiences are potent forces in regenerating our self-esteem.
Self-Esteen Self-Analysis. There are a plethora of clinically approved self-esteem inventories and scales, including, but hardly limited to, the Coopersmith Self-Esteem Inventory (CSEI), Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale (RSE), and Sorenson Self-Esteem Test.
One that we utilize as a valuable element of our character resumé is called Self-Esteem Self-Analysis, a subjective evaluation that encourages introspection and self-awareness, helping us identify what we like about ourselves mentally, emotionally, physically, spiritually, and socially.
In Conclusion
A written record of our achievements and strengths is a powerful tool for self-reflection and self-improvement, helping us stay organized and in control of our personal development.
When challenged by negative self-appraisal or automatic negative thoughts, our character resumé constantly reminds us of our qualities and assets—a written evaluation of our value and significance. This indispensable resource helps alleviate self-destructive thoughts, behaviors, and other adverse self-beliefs.
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.
ReChanneling accepts guest posts on social anxiety and related conditions for publication on our website as part of our broader outreach into the community. Listening to and sharing the stories, experiences, and expertise of others broadens our perspective and those of our readers.
ReChanneling is a platform that values your voice. Your contributions on social anxiety and comorbidities are not just appreciated, they are powerful. By supplementing our articles and reviews with your ideas, opinions, and experiences, we create a comprehensive overview of emotional malfunction and recovery methods, enriched by your unique perspective.
Do you feel like you’re stuck in a never-ending loop, unable to live the life you want? Do you feel distant from your peers and struggle to connect with family and friends? Do you avoid new relationships, fearing rejection? Do you find yourself making the same mistakes over and over again?
Do you feel like you’re constantly under scrutiny, with everyone around you judging or criticizing? Do you worry about making a bad impression on people who may not even matter to you? Are you overly concerned about your actions, appearance, and how you express yourself? Do you worry that people will notice you sweating or blushing? That your voice will tremble and become incoherent?
Do you incessantly replay adverse events in your head? Do you constantly relive all the discomforting things that happen to you during the day? Do you avoid meeting people or going on dates because you anticipate disaster? Do you beat yourself up for all those lost opportunities?
ReChanneling develops and implements programs to (1) alleviate symptoms of emotional malfunction 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 scientific and clinically practical methods, including proactive neuroplasticity, cognitive-behavioral self-modification, positive psychology, and techniques designed to regenerate self-esteem.
“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.
Topics should focus on (a) mental health, (b) social anxiety {disorder}, (c) anxiety, depression, and comorbidities, or (d) self-empowerment.
1. Scholarly articles and reviews
Original and not posted anywhere on the internet. This provision avoids duplicate content that can confuse search engines. However, you can link your article or items within your article to previously posted and similar information. Our posting will provide links to your website and other accounts as appropriate.
2. Personal reflections and experiences
Your experiences with social anxiety and other emotional malfunctions, and how you cope with symptoms and situations, can have a profound impact on others. Your methods of recovery and reflections are not just beneficial, but they are also influential and inspiring to those who are going through similar situations. By sharing your journey, you can empower and inspire others.
Email your submission or proposal to rmullenphd@gmail.com. Once received, our team will review your submission and get back to you within one week.
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.
Utilizing Psychobiography to Mitigate Symptoms of SAD
DOI: DOI: 10.6084/m9.figshare.26023399
Abstract: Putting practical application to theory, this paper illustrates how the research techniques of psychobiography are incorporated into a comprehensive recovery program for social anxiety disorder.
Keywords:character-motivation, childhood disturbance, emotional disorders, Maslow, recovery, self-esteem, social anxiety
Psychobiography can be a most helpful treatment method in alleviating the impact of social anxiety disorder (SAD). Which is one of the most common mental disorders, negatively impacting the emotional and mental well-being of millions of U.S. adults and adolescents who find themselves caught up in a densely interconnected network of fear and avoidance of social situations.
SAD is culturally identifiable by the persistent fear of social and performance situations in which we claim to be misunderstood, judged, criticized, and ridiculed. The irony is that we have far more to fear from our distorted perceptions than the opinions of others. Our imagination takes us to dark and lonely places.
SAD makes us feel helpless and hopeless. Trapped in a vicious cycle of fear and anxiety, and restricted from living a “normal” life. We feel alienated and disconnected—loners full of uncertainty, hesitation, and trepidation. Our fear of disapproval and rejection is so severe that we avoid the life experiences that interconnect us with others and the world.
Fearing the unknown and unexplored, we obsess about upcoming situations and how we will reveal our shortcomings. Experiencing anticipatory anxiety for weeks before an event and expecting the worst.
We feel like we are living under a microscope, and everyone is judging us negatively. Making us worry about what we say, how we look, and how we express ourselves. We are obsessed with how others perceive us; we feel undesirable and worthless.
“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.
As a SAD survivor, researcher, and workshop facilitator, I have found that the investigative methods utilized in psychobiography offer a unique understanding of how our motivation to succeed is seriously impaired by the symptoms of SAD. Until my psychology graduate study, I was convinced my emotional dysfunctions were the consequence of poor behavior rather than SAD-symptomatic. It was then I realized the immeasurable value of the in-depth case study that forms the crux of psychobiography.
Recovery can be encapsulated by the phrase: “We are not defined by our social anxiety; we are defined by our character strengths, virtues, and achievements.”
SAD is a product of our negative core and intermediate beliefs induced by childhood disturbance. Cumulative evidence that a toxic childhood is a primary causal factor in lifetime emotional instability has been well-established. Emotional disorders sense the child’s vulnerability and onset during adolescence. (In the later-life onset of narcissistic personality disorder and post-traumatic stress disorder [PTSD], the susceptibility originates in childhood.)
The disruption of emotional development subverts the child’s natural physiological and emotional evolution, denying the satisfaction of self-esteem. This does not signify a deficit, but both latency and dormancy are expressed by our undervaluation or regression of our positive self-qualities.
“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)
In a recent article, I stated the case that the psychobiographic emphasis on the eminent extraordinary limits its potential to understand the character motivations of the “ordinary” extraordinary who has achieved a significant personal milestone. To the average individual living with SAD, a noteworthy milestone is recovery-remission from emotional dysfunction. Putting practical application to theory, I have incorporated research methods of psychobiography into our comprehensive recovery programs.
The role of psychobiography is to generate a more in-depth understanding of the qualities and characteristics that motivate us to achieve and overcome adversity. A primary function of recovery is to galvanize the SAD person to reclaim mindfulness of their character strengths, virtues, and achievements. Recognizing and accepting our inherent and developed personal values encourages us to embrace the extraordinariness of our lives. Confirming we are consequential and valuable.
The lifetime-consistent influx of negative self-beliefs and images generated by SAD negatively impacts the natural development of self-esteem. Defined as the realization of one’s significance to self and community. Self-esteem is the complex interrelationship between how we think about ourselves, how we think others perceive us, and how we process and express that information.
The roots of this lacuna are illustrated by Abraham Maslow’s hierarchy of developmental needs. Childhood physical, emotional, or sexual disturbance disrupts our emotional and physiological development. Our sense of safety and security as well as feelings of belongingness and being loved are subverted, denying the satisfaction of self-esteem. While access to Maslow’s hierarchal levels is nonlinear, when coupled with our negative core and intermediate beliefs, the impact on our self-esteem becomes a certainty.
Maslow and Psychobiography: Realizing Our Potential
The collaboration of psychobiography and positive psychology traces its origins to themes addressed by Maslow that stress the importance of focusing on our positive qualities to realize our potential—to become the most that we can be.
A function of psychobiography is to generate an understanding of the individual to learn what motivates our thoughts and behaviors. SAD functions by compelling irrational and self-destructive thoughts and behaviors due to its life-consistent negative self-beliefs and images. Psychobiography lays the groundwork for rational response.
The foundation of positive psychology is a human’s ability, development, and potential. The SAD symptomatic, life-consistent neural input of toxic information subverts our recognition and appreciation of our inherent and developed character strengths, virtues, and achievements—a trajectory initiated by our negative core and intermediate beliefs. It is the role of psychobiography to study the character attributes that generate the motivation to achieve and apply these understandings toward optimal functioning and improved life satisfaction.
The Influence of Core Beliefs in SAD
Core beliefs are determined by our childhood physiology, heredity, environment, information input, experience, learning, and relationships. Negative core beliefs are generated by any childhood disturbance that interferes with our optimal physical, cognitive, emotional, and social development. Perhaps we were subject to dysfunctional parenting, a lack of emotional validation, gender bullying, or a broken home. The disturbance can be intentional or accidental, real, or perceptual. A toddler whose parental quality time is interrupted by a phone call can sense abandonment, which can generate core beliefs of unworthiness or insignificance.
Core beliefs remain our belief system throughout life and govern our perceptions. They are more rigid in SAD persons because we tend to store information consistent with negative self-beliefs, ignoring evidence that contradicts. A recent Japanese study on emotional neuroticism found that core beliefs about the negative self-generate cognitive vulnerabilities in achievement, dependency, and self-control. SAD generates cognitive distortions and maladaptive behaviors counterproductive to logical reasoning, negatively impacting the rationality and accuracy of our perspectives and decisions.
Aaron Beck is the undisputed pioneer of cognitive-behavioral therapy for social anxiety and depression. He assigned negative core beliefs to two categories: self-oriented (“I am undesirable”) and other-oriented (“You are undesirable”). Individuals with self-oriented negative core beliefs view themselves in four ways: we feel helpless, hopeless, undesirable, and/or worthless.
These beliefs can lead to fears of intimacy and commitment, an inability to trust, debilitating anxiety, codependence, aggression, feelings of insecurity, isolation, a lack of control over life, and resistance to new experiences. People with other-oriented negative core beliefs view people as demeaning, dismissive, malicious, or manipulative. By blaming others, we avoid personal accountability for our behaviors.
Intermediate Beliefs: Establishing Attitudes, Rules, and Assumptions
The accumulated negative core beliefs due to childhood disturbance and other early-life experiences heavily influence our intermediate beliefs that develop our adolescence. As with core beliefs, they support our natural negative bias, neurobiologically inputting toxic information that reinforces our negative self-valuations.
Intermediate beliefs establish our attitudes, rules, and assumptions. Attitude refers to our emotions, convictions, and behaviors. Rules are the principles or regulations that influence our behaviors. Our assumptions are what we believe to be true or real. A SAD person’s attitude is one of self-denigration, assumptions illogical and cognitively distorted, and rules interacted by destructive behaviors,
A comprehensive recovery workshop must consider the needs of the individual within the group. One-size-fits-all approaches are anathema to recovery. Just as there is no one right way to do or experience recovery and transformation, so also what benefits one individual may not be helpful to another.
The insularity of cognitive-behavioral therapy, positive psychologies, and other approaches cannot comprehensively address the complexity of the personality. Our environment, heritage, background, and associations reflect our wants, choices, and aspirations. If they are not given appropriate consideration, then we are not valued.
Devising a targeted recovery approach requires multiple perspectives from different psychological and scientific schools of thought developed through client trust, cultural assimilation, and therapeutic innovation.
A collaboration of science and East-West psychologies is essential to capture the diversity of human thought and experience. Science gives us proactive neuroplasticity: cognitive-behavioral modification, positive psychology, and psychobiography are western-oriented; and eastern practices provide the therapeutic benefits of Buddhist psychology. As well as a sense of self that embraces the positive qualities of the individual.
The qualitative and quantitative research elements of psychobiography, including the case study, hermeneutics, interpretations and explanations, personal data and evidence, and the narrative are useful tools for understanding the impact of SAD on our self-beliefs and images.
Quantitative and Qualitative Research
Quantitative research involves the empirical investigation of observable and measurable variables. It is used for testing theory, predicting and illustrating outcomes, and considering clinically-supported techniques. Quantitative research generates hypotheses and helps determine research and recovery strategies. It can include data-driven research, scales, personal inventories, and comparative or correlational studies. Although conceived as focusing on data articulated numerically, quantitative analysis is also used to study feared situations and the severity of anxiety.
Qualitative research provides a close-up look at the human side of SAD relative to behaviors, beliefs, emotions, and relationships, supported by such intangible factors as social norms, ethnicity, socio-economic status, philosophy, and religion. A comprehensive study of the status and motivations of a SAD person is partially compiled through interviews, open-ended questions, and opinion research to gain insight into perceptions and belief systems.
In-Depth Case-Study
The psychobiographic in-depth case study is a reconstructive clinical and systematic analysis of the life and productivity of an individual. The key is the availability of evidence. Accessing therapeutic notes and conclusions is legally impermissible. The workshop facilitator must lean heavily on experience and innovative methods of discovery.
A case study of a recovering SAD person relies heavily on personal interviews– testimony that is conditional and truthful to the extent that the individual believes it or needs the facilitator to believe it. Clinically-supported scales and inventories are useful, and statistical research and studies are abundant. Comparative and correlational evidence supports conclusions.
Interpretations and Explanations
Psychobiography is an interpretation of the life of individuals, extraordinary or otherwise. Interpretations and explanations compensate for the physiological and psychological resistance to personal revelation. Recollections are highly subject to inaccuracies.
We must ask ourselves, to what extent are memories of subjective experiences and events accurate portrayals of what happened, wistful recollections, or biased reconstructions? Whether correctly recalled or not, memories and recollections must be valued as authentic perceptions of the reality of the individual. In the case of Michael Z., his recollections of childhood physical and emotional abuse helped him understand and mitigate his avoidance of trust and intimacy.
Interpretation permeates all investigations from data to statistics, the case study, and hermeneutics. Psychobiography is an intuitive, interpretive method of comprehension based upon the synthesis of evidence culled from all available, relevant sources. Therapists must partially base their diagnosis on the interpretation of observable behaviors.
A facilitator must consider the multiplicities of truth. Which means different things to different people and is contingent upon the validity of the information provided by the subject. We must be willing to risk and value our interpretations, instincts, and even speculations while remaining cognizant that we are susceptible to incorporating personal sensibilities and subject to imperfect conclusions, due to the vagaries and ambiguities of the subject.
Hermeneutics
Hermeneutics is essential to recovery due to the core beliefs of the child impacted by a dysfunction-provoking disturbance. The disruption in emotional development coupled with unjustifiable shame and guilt generates negative and often hostile perspectives in early learning which leans heavily on morality and religion. The unjustifiable shame and guilt expressed by Matty S. was a reliable indicator of his sense of undesirability and worthlessness. Recognizing his non-accountability for onset allowed him to realize the irrationality of his adverse moral emotions.
The negative belief system of the susceptible child cognitively distorts their understanding of self. And their relationship with others and the world. A major function of recovery is alleviating these irrational beliefs. This entails identifying and examining our disruptive thoughts and behaviors and generating rational responses, while proactively repatterning our neural network.
Narrative
The narrative aspect of psychobiography favors the “ordinary” extraordinary because of their ability to access experiences. While the narrative of the average individual may lack spectacularism it does not impede creativity. Every SAD individual’s life is distinctive, consisting of unique experiences, beliefs, and sensibilities. How we express that information is subject to our self-beliefs and images. Through the interview and narrative process, Liz D. could rationally comprehend and mitigate her intense situational fear of constructive confrontation. Its complex origins stemmed from her adolescent intermediate self-beliefs. The role of the personal narrative in addressing negative self-perceptions is significant.
Concluding Thoughts
This article illustrates the value of psychobiography in constructing an individually targeted approach to recovery from social anxiety disorder. A psychobiography generates hypotheses and helps determine recovery strategies. While offering a close-up look at the human side of SAD relative to behaviors, beliefs, emotions, and relationships. It provides support in evaluating and treating the individual within the workshop gestalt.
The investigative methods utilized in psychobiography, including the case study, hermeneutics, interview, narrative, and the relevant social sciences, are valuable to understanding the trajectory of and methods to alleviate life-consistent negative self-beliefs and images. Less reliable is the availability of an informed case study and personal data and evidence. This lacuna is compensated by the experienced facilitator’s interpretation of common threads in SAD recovery. Supported by statistical research and comparative and correlational evidence.
Clio’s Psyche is a peer-reviewed, scholarly journal, founded in 1994, and published by the Psychohistory Forum, holding regular scholarly meetings in Manhattan and at international conventions. Clio’s Psyche is unique in that it prefers experiential testimony over extensive citation.
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 absent 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.
Today, I wanted to share my Blogger Interview with Robert F. Mullen, the latest episode of my podcast. I’ve known him for a really long time thanks to blogging and I have really admired the work he does. As you will notice if you decide to visit his site, he has a doctorate and his area of expertise is social anxiety.
In this interview, we talk about so many things but in particular we focused on mental health and social anxiety. These topics are actually quite personal to me because I’ve been suffering from both depression and social anxiety since I was a teenager. And as he mentions in the interview, these two disorders often go hand in hand.
Robert F. Mullen’s approach is quite different from what I have seen, read and heard about social anxiety. And since he was someone who once suffered from social anxiety himself, I think he has a really accurate idea of what it’s like. He views recovery from social anxiety as “a collaboration of science, philosophy, and psychology” and believes that therefore its remedy must be thought of in the same way.
And from my own experiences with social anxiety, I can’t help but agree. When it comes to research about mental health, I find that it’s always from a specific lens. It focuses on science or psychology or other aspects. But the truth is, for a lot of people at least, it’s a combination of everything that causes the disorder.
If this sort of content sounds interesting to you, check out our interview below. And don’t forget to check out his site. It’s truly a mine of information.
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Lifesfinewhine, a pioneering international website from Kenya, offers invaluable insights into mental health issues. The site’s producer, Pooja G, was diagnosed with depression and social anxiety as a teenager. Her journey, marked by rigorous research and deep self-reflection, has given her a profound understanding of mental health illnesses and the stigma that often surrounds them.
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Comments
“Another very interesting and informative interview. I was particularly uplifted, by the fact that he went through so many transitions in life, before finding his true calling. I admire his approach to his practice. His clients… his life.” – byngnigel
“Another great interview. I love how he is for the underdog.” – Joseph Glidden
“That was a wonderful interview! I am also someone who suffers from social anxiety, thanks for all the work you do Robert!” – Carol anne
”Great interview with Robert Mullen… I love his approach coming from his own background and passing it on to support others.” – Cindy Georgakas
What is your truth? What is your secret? What secrets are you keeping from the world that you hope one day you will be brave enough to tell? When will you tell your heart? All The Words I Kept Inside allows you this moment.
This collection of poetry urges you to look deeply inside and confront your darkest thoughts. It takes that inner dread, disappointment, and heartache to reveal the words of the heart. This book will show you that you are not alone. That you are understood. That you don’t have to go through these dark moments on your own because so many of us experience them too. The words found inside will reach out a hand and guide you. Amazon Books
WHY IS YOUR SUPPORT SO NECESSARY AND ESSENTIAL?ReChanneling develops and conducts programs to alleviate the symptoms of social anxiety and help individuals tap into their innate potential for extraordinary living. Our unique approach focuses on understanding personality through empathy and collaboration, integrating neuroscience and psychology. This includes proactive neuroplasticity, cognitive-behavioral modification, positive psychology, and techniques designed to reclaim and rebuild self-esteem. Every contribution, no matter the size, supports individuals striving to make a positive change in their own lives and the lives of others. All donations go towards scholarships for groups and workshops.
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.
“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)
This series of videos explains how, through proactive neuroplasticity, we compel our neural network to repattern its neural circuitry, generating a correlated change in behavior and perspective. The deliberate, repetitive neural input (DRNI) of information dramatically accelerates and consolidates learning through synaptic neurotransmission.
The series further describes how we replace or overwhelm our negative thoughts and behaviors through CBT, proactive and active neuroplasticity, positive psychology, psychoeducation, roleplay, gradual exposure, and other individually targeted approaches.
This 8th video in our series discusses recovery from social anxiety and related conditions by establishing coping mechanisms.
Coping Mechanisms, Part 1
Social anxiety is culturally identifiable by the persistent fear and avoidance of social interaction and performance situations. Which causes us to miss the life experiences that connect us with the world. Adaptive coping mechanisms help us cope with stress, anxiety, and their provoking triggers.
Our primary recovery goal is the dramatic alleviation of our irrational fears, anxieties, and their triggers. We achieve this through a three-pronged approach where we:
Replace or overwhelm our negative thoughts and behaviors with healthy, productive ones.
Produce rapid, concentrated positive stimulation to offset the abundance of negative information in our brain’s metabolism.
Regenerate our self-esteem through positive reinforcement and mindfulness of our assets, utilizing methods targeted toward our individuality.
Coping Strategies versus Coping Mechanisms
Coping strategies are the methods or approaches that best execute our three objectives. In recovery workshops, we emphasize response-focused and solution-focused strategies. But multiple complementary strategies are utilized. Including problem and emotion-focused coping strategies that help us manage our response to feared situations.
Coping mechanisms are tools and techniques that implement our strategies. Tools and techniques that help us cope with stress, anxiety, and their corresponding triggers. They range from practiced skills in recovery to everyday stress reduction, like gardening, journaling, and listening to music. Coping Mechanisms, Part 1 focuses on the psychological benefits of coping methods and the three primary mechanisms: grounding, reframing, and rational response.
Coping mechanisms are adaptive – they can be tailored to our individual needs and circumstances, positively contributing to our emotional well-being. These empower us to manage our reactions and response to feared situations, giving us control over our recovery journey.
Video Series #8: Coping Mechanisms, Part 1
Coping mechanisms are tools and techniques that help us manage and alleviate our situational anxieties and stress triggers. Part 1 focuses on the psychological benefits of coping methods and the three primary mechanisms – grounding, reframing, and rational response. In Part 2, or video #9, we’ll delve into secondary coping mechanisms and their appropriate utilization, providing a comprehensive understanding of the most effective coping strategies for mitigating our situational fears and anxieties. LINK
Video Series #7: Constructing Our Neural Information
Neural information is constructed by establishing our goal, identifying the objectives or steps we take to implement that goal, and determining the Information – the self-affirming or motivating statement we deliberately and repetitively input into our neural network. We want our information to be authentic and of sound construction to engage the full capacity of positive neural response. The integrity of our goal, objectives, and information correlates to the durability and efficacy of the neural response. LINK
Video Series #6: Affirmative Visualization
By visualizing a positive outcome prior to a feared situation, we experience behaving a certain way in a realistic scenario and, through repetition, attain an authentic shift in our behavior and perspective. It is a form of proactive neuroplasticity, and all the neural benefits of that science are accrued. Just as our neural network cannot distinguish between toxic and healthy information, it also does not distinguish whether we are physically experiencing something or imagining it. LINK
Video Series #5: Challenging Our Self-Destructive Thoughts
In this video, we focus on the trajectory of our self-destructive thoughts that impact our emotional wellbeing and quality of life. They originate with our negative core beliefs generated by our disorder which influence our intermediate beliefs from life experiences and form our ANTs or automatic negative thoughts that underscore our situational fears and anxieties. LINK
Video Series #4: The Power of Positive Personal Affirmations
We drastically underestimate the significance and effectiveness of PPAs because we do not understand the science behind them. PPAs are brief, individually focused statements that we repeat to ourselves to describe what and who we want to be. PPAs help us focus on goals, challenge negative, self-defeating beliefs, and reprogram our subconscious minds. Practicing positive personal affirmations is an extremely effective form of DRNI or the deliberate, repetitive input of neural information that supports proactive neuroplasticity. LINK
Video Series #3: Tools and Techniques
Proactive neuroplasticity is the process of deliberately and repetitively inputting positive information into our neural network to consolidate learning and unlearning. What is that information? How is it constructed? The objective is to ensure the information is of the highest quality to effect change. What are the best tools and techniques? What methodologies and psychological support systems are best suited to support proactive neuroplasticity – to help us unlearn the toxicity of negative self-beliefs, replacing them with healthy, positive ones. LINK
Video Series #2: Three Forms of Neuroplasticity
Reactive neuroplasticity is our brain’s natural adaptation to sensory information. Active neuroplasticity is neural information acquired through conscious activity, which includes all forms of deliberate learning. Proactive neuroplasticity is the conscious, intentional repatterning of our neural network utilizing tools and techniques that facilitate the process. The deliberate, repetitive, input of neural information empowers us to proactively transform our thoughts and behaviors, creating healthy new mindsets, skills, and abilities. LINK
Video Series #1: Introduction
Research has established that our neural network is a dynamic organism, constantly adapting and rebuilding to each new input of information. Scientists refer to the process of neuroplasticity as the structural remodeling of the brain. By deliberately enhancing the process, we can proactively transform our thoughts, behaviors, and perspectives, creating healthy new mindsets, skills, and abilities. All information notifies our neural pathways to restructure, generating a correlated change in behavior and perspective. LINK
The video series describes the evolution of the science of neuroplasticity, differentiating reactive and active from proactive neural input. Videos diagram the trajectory of neural information. And how it impacts the various lobes of the human brain responsible for cognitive learning. The neural input of data, coded into electrical energy, causes a receptive neuron to fire that energy onto a sensory neuron. Which forwards the information to millions of participating neurons.
Benefits of Neural Restructuring
The videos demonstrate how this cellular chain reaction reciprocates that initial electrical energy in abundance due to the amplified neural response. Positive information input, positive energy multiplied millions of times, positive energy reciprocated in abundance. Each neural input of information impacts millions of neurons as they restructure our neural network to a form conducive to a positive self-image.
Subsequently, the natural hormonal neurotransmissions reward our activity with GABA for relaxation, dopamine for pleasure, endorphins for euphoria, serotonin for a sense of well-being, and hormones that support our motivation, enhance our memory, and improve concentration.
However, since our brain doesn’t distinguish healthy from toxic information, the neurotransmission of pleasurable and motivational hormones happens whether we feed it self-destructive or constructive information. That’s one of the reasons breaking a habit, keeping to a resolution, or achieving our desired goal is challenging. And why positive informational input is crucial for recovery and self-transformation.
“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.
Contemporary wisdom disputes the effectiveness of one-size-fits-all approaches to behavioral modification. So these videos evidence how integrating science and east-west psychologies is best suited to positively modifying our thoughts and behaviors. Science gives us proactive neuroplasticity, cognitive-behavioral modification, and positive psychology’s optimal functioning, which are Western approaches. Eastern practices give us Abhidharma psychology and the overarching truths of ethical behavior.
Our core and intermediate beliefs condition our neural system. Childhood disturbance and emotional malfunction negatively impact these beliefs, generating negative self-appraisal that affects our emotional well-being and quality of life.
The mechanics of Hebbian Learning define how the repeated proactive input of information correlates to more robust and practical learning. Hebb’s rule states the more repetitions, the quicker and stronger the connections. Harmful behaviors are unlearned, and healthy ones are adopted through deliberate and calculated activity. Negative core and intermediate beliefs are challenged and replaced by healthy and life-affirming ones. Videos demonstrate how deliberate, repetitive neural information alleviates emotional malfunction and empowers us to achieve our goals and objectives.
Proactive neuroplasticity is theoretically simple but challenging due to the commitment and endurance required for the long-term, repetitive process. We advance to Wimbledon with decades of practice on the courts. Philharmonics cater to pianists who have spent years at the keyboard. Proactive neuroplasticity requires a calculated regimen of deliberate, repetitive neural information that is tedious and fails to deliver immediate tangible results. Causing us to readily concede defeat and abandon hope in this era of instant gratification.
The positive impact of proactive neuroplasticity is exponential due to the abundant reciprocation of positive electrical energy and the neurotransmission of hormones that generate motivation, persistence, and perseverance. Proactive neuroplasticity dramatically mitigates symptoms of emotional dysfunction and advances our pursuit of goals and objectives.
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.
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.
