Noah Leonard
Psychology
Buddha’s Brain case study
The case study I chose was about Jim. Jim is a man in his thirties who suffered from social anxiety. His anxiety was so bad that his wife would do all the social planning and all the phone calls in the house. The good part for Jim was how understanding his wife was of his condition. As stated in the case study many divorces happen when one of the people has social anxiety. The reason Jim got treatment was because he got a new position at his job that required him to make calls and put him in a management role. His anxiety leading up to the calls or to talking to people is what made this so bad: the longer he waited the worse it got. Things I would suggest to him are meditation, diaphragmatic breathing, and drinking tea. These are all ways Jim could lessen the affects of his anxiety.
What was causing Jims anxiety was an overactive sympathetic nervous system. Jim creates what we call “second darts” by worrying about future events, then even more darts by thinking something is wrong with him after the events happen. A second dart is when you create a stress response in your body that doesn’t need to be there. For example you get hit by your friend. That hurts and is a “first dart”. The second dart would be you asking yourself why your friend hit you and thinking that you did something to deserve it (usually when you didn’t really). All kinds of “darts” engage your sympathetic nervous system or your fight or flight response. The fight or flight response is a necessary part of our survival but if we are in that state for long periods of time, like Jim, then it can have lasting physical and mental effects on our bodys. Jim is tapping into this response too much by anticipating choking on his words in phone calls or conversations, then by thinking negatively he only engages his sympathetic nervous system more.
A Buddhist might say that Jim is too attached to the feeling of anxiety and too attached to encounters he has had where he stumbled upon his own words. Jim is attached to the feeling of being embarrassed about the previously mentioned. There are many ways that Jim could lessen his anxiety to a reasonable amount. As the case study said Jim was told to exaggerate his feelings of anxiety and that he found them humorous, so they were easier to deal with.
Drinking tea has many health benefits, but one thing that would help Jim is that tea lowers the amount of cortisol, the hormone released by your parasympathetic nervous system. This would make his fight or flight response lessened slightly which would make it more manageable, and would also make his body more relaxed as a whole, and aid his digestion.
Another way Jim could dampen the effects of his anxiety is diaphragmatic breathing, diaphragmatic breathing is the way we breath when we are asleep, it is when we breath through our bellies. This is the most relaxed way we can breath. How I would tell Jim to do this is to, whenever he starts to feel anxious before he has to meet somebody or call somebody to stop, and take twenty deep breaths from his belly with his eyes closed. This would help him to relax and also help him take a moment to realise that he need not worry so much, and that he is only calling somebody or meeting somebody, and even if he jumbles his words up, they will understand.
The last method I would prescribe to Jim is meditation. Meditation would help Jim to explore his mind and to find the root of the suffering that is his anxiety. Jim could just take five to ten minutes a night to meditate and relax and just try to notice his thought patterns, maybe he could find where he begins to feel anxious. This would generally help him understand himself.
Overall, Jim’s disorder is not the worst case scenario, and his anxiety could be very manageable. If he just tried to take a moment to relax and engage his parasympathetic nervous system it could have lasting benefits on his mind and body. Everyday tasks would feel less daunting and he could suffer less. This also might make it easier on his wife, who although she is okay with being the social planner, I’m sure she would be okay with having a few breaks.
Works Cited:
Hanson, Rick. Buddha's Brain:The Practical Neuroscience of Happiness, Love, and Wisdom. New Edition. New Harbinger Publications, 2009. Print.
Psychology
Buddha’s Brain case study
The case study I chose was about Jim. Jim is a man in his thirties who suffered from social anxiety. His anxiety was so bad that his wife would do all the social planning and all the phone calls in the house. The good part for Jim was how understanding his wife was of his condition. As stated in the case study many divorces happen when one of the people has social anxiety. The reason Jim got treatment was because he got a new position at his job that required him to make calls and put him in a management role. His anxiety leading up to the calls or to talking to people is what made this so bad: the longer he waited the worse it got. Things I would suggest to him are meditation, diaphragmatic breathing, and drinking tea. These are all ways Jim could lessen the affects of his anxiety.
What was causing Jims anxiety was an overactive sympathetic nervous system. Jim creates what we call “second darts” by worrying about future events, then even more darts by thinking something is wrong with him after the events happen. A second dart is when you create a stress response in your body that doesn’t need to be there. For example you get hit by your friend. That hurts and is a “first dart”. The second dart would be you asking yourself why your friend hit you and thinking that you did something to deserve it (usually when you didn’t really). All kinds of “darts” engage your sympathetic nervous system or your fight or flight response. The fight or flight response is a necessary part of our survival but if we are in that state for long periods of time, like Jim, then it can have lasting physical and mental effects on our bodys. Jim is tapping into this response too much by anticipating choking on his words in phone calls or conversations, then by thinking negatively he only engages his sympathetic nervous system more.
A Buddhist might say that Jim is too attached to the feeling of anxiety and too attached to encounters he has had where he stumbled upon his own words. Jim is attached to the feeling of being embarrassed about the previously mentioned. There are many ways that Jim could lessen his anxiety to a reasonable amount. As the case study said Jim was told to exaggerate his feelings of anxiety and that he found them humorous, so they were easier to deal with.
Drinking tea has many health benefits, but one thing that would help Jim is that tea lowers the amount of cortisol, the hormone released by your parasympathetic nervous system. This would make his fight or flight response lessened slightly which would make it more manageable, and would also make his body more relaxed as a whole, and aid his digestion.
Another way Jim could dampen the effects of his anxiety is diaphragmatic breathing, diaphragmatic breathing is the way we breath when we are asleep, it is when we breath through our bellies. This is the most relaxed way we can breath. How I would tell Jim to do this is to, whenever he starts to feel anxious before he has to meet somebody or call somebody to stop, and take twenty deep breaths from his belly with his eyes closed. This would help him to relax and also help him take a moment to realise that he need not worry so much, and that he is only calling somebody or meeting somebody, and even if he jumbles his words up, they will understand.
The last method I would prescribe to Jim is meditation. Meditation would help Jim to explore his mind and to find the root of the suffering that is his anxiety. Jim could just take five to ten minutes a night to meditate and relax and just try to notice his thought patterns, maybe he could find where he begins to feel anxious. This would generally help him understand himself.
Overall, Jim’s disorder is not the worst case scenario, and his anxiety could be very manageable. If he just tried to take a moment to relax and engage his parasympathetic nervous system it could have lasting benefits on his mind and body. Everyday tasks would feel less daunting and he could suffer less. This also might make it easier on his wife, who although she is okay with being the social planner, I’m sure she would be okay with having a few breaks.
Works Cited:
Hanson, Rick. Buddha's Brain:The Practical Neuroscience of Happiness, Love, and Wisdom. New Edition. New Harbinger Publications, 2009. Print.