It’s help them to calm their brain.
Picture a meerkat, up on the tips of his feet, eyes and ears peeled for danger. Red Alert. The meerkat is on patrol for the night. His brain and nervous system are hypervigilant, sensitive to all dangers, out to protect his clan.
Now picture the other miakats (that’s how I like to spell it!). They are asleep. They are warm and curled up, maybe cuddling up to a fellow miakat. They feel safe. They feel relaxed. They are resting and reenergising for the next round of activity.
They swap. Once the patrol miakat has done his patrol, he can rest, while some-one else takes over patrol duty.
The problem with anxiety and depression, is that the brain’s alert/danger system is stuck to “on”, leading to exhaustion. This alert/danger system shows itself in the inability to sleep well, the constant worrying about whether you are good enough, or whether your baby is healthy enough, or whether other people are talking about you, constant restlessness mixed with tiredness, irritability, and so on.
So, the first thing I do when I meet some-one who is depressed or anxious, is help their brain to switch from the alert/danger system, into the calm/relaxed system. I relax them in session, and then I give them a relaxation MP3 to listen to every evening as they go to bed. It’s like a sleeping tablet that has no side effects. It’s like a respite for the brain, from that constant struggle. It’s the start of things getting better for them.
Mia Scotland
Clinical Psychologist
www.yourbirthright.co.uk.