3 Common Ways Your Brain Gets It Wrong

I remember growing up and often hearing our brains being compared to super computers. The capability of our brain is quite amazing and there is so much about it that we still don’t understand. There may be a disadvantage though for those outside of the neuroscience field (who have a better understanding of the brain) to consider their own brains as a super computer and it has nothing to do with anyone’s intelligence. The problem is if you think of your brain as a super computer, you have to make sure you also recognize that it often comes with glitches and its own needs for updates. We have to recognize that our brain does not always get the answer right. In fact, it may often be wrong.

Our Core Beliefs

Our brain can often misread cues in our environment because of our own perceptions, habits, or mental health. As we grow and experience different events in our lives, we begin to develop core beliefs. These core beliefs are ways we view ourselves, our lives, and the world around us. They are often the fuel for our automatic thoughts and can quickly shape how we perceive an event or our experiences.

Core beliefs are often described as if you were to put on a pair of glasses. Those glasses change the view of what you’re looking at. Colored lenses add a different hue to the world and prescription glasses can make things clearer, but if you put on lenses that aren’t right for you it can distort the world that you see. Our core beliefs are like those lenses, shaping what we see and how we respond. If you chose to continue to put on glasses that aren’t beneficial to you, it can cause you to see a world that doesn’t actually exist, because core beliefs are not facts. Core beliefs are like magnets, choosing to pull in evidence that supports them and repel evidence that contradicts them.

That being said, everyone has a different “shade” of their lenses that causes them to see things differently. Two people can experience the same event and interpret it differently, especially if they’re looking through the lenses of a negative core belief.

For example, if we have experienced trauma, neglect, or betrayal earlier in our life we may develop a core belief that we can’t trust other people- not just those that actually hurt us. With that belief we begin to notice the shortcoming of those around us much more readily. Our brain is learning to focus on the mistakes or disappointments around us while ignoring all the positive support and connections that are present or available to us. It can begin to change our instincts and behaviors until we eventually stop asking or looking for support from anyone (because we think we can’t trust that they’ll be there) and then we begin to protect our feelings by praising ourselves that “we don’t need anyone”, which only serves to hurt us more in the long term. Human beings need a sense of community. We need to be able to trust others and our environments. We need other’s help at times. If our core belief becomes that we can’t trust anyone, then we aren’t just protecting ourselves from those that did hurt us in some way, we are instead closing ourselves off from others that can enrich our lives and our experiences. This is also why the practices of boundaries and balances are so valuable. It can allow us to see experiences and individuals in degrees. No, not all people we meet will be trustworthy, they will have degrees of trustworthiness to them. When we have good boundaries and balance in our lives, we are more protected from those with minimal degrees of trustworthiness while still being able to experience positive interactions with others.

False Positives

Our brain has an internal physiological response to threats or stressors called the Fight-or-Flight Response. It cues our body to fight off, flee from, or even to feel frozen at times from a perceived threat. This internal system is our brain’s attempt at priming us to protect ourselves from danger.

Sometimes, though, this system can be activated accidentally when we are not in danger. Think about a time you may have seen a shadow or movement out of the corner of your eye. It can startle you or cause you jump, causing your heart and breathing to race, your pupils to dilate, and your brain to release neurochemicals. This can all happen in a split second until you realize that nothing was actually there. Your brain just miscomputed the visual stimuli. Now in this situation that is fine- your fight-or-flight response stops once you know you’re okay. You’ll still feel shaky and it may take your heart a minute to completely settle back down, but your brain has turned the response off. This is how it is supposed to work.

Now imagine, though, that it wasn’t something you saw, but something you thought that stressed you. Perhaps it was an anxious thought or a negative thought about yourself, like an insecurity from a negative core belief. These thoughts can start your fight-or-flight response too. Since there isn’t a moment like the previous example where you’ll suddenly realize that everything is fine, your fight-or-flight response can stay on much longer, which negatively impacts your brain and body.

Our brain has a hard time differentiating between the thoughts we have that are really occurring and those that are based on our own fears and worries about future events. So again, if you have negative core beliefs about yourself or others, they can end up triggering a lot more false positives.

Cognitive Distortions

The third common way that our brain can misinterpret information is called cognitive distortions. Cognitive distortions can also falsely trigger our fight-or-flight response, just like our negative core beliefs. In fact, our negative core beliefs can shape a lot of our cognitive distortions as well.

Cognitive distortions are inaccurate or irrational thought patterns that we can fall into. Everyone engages in some degree of them in their lives, but some individuals may find themselves repeatedly and irrationally caught in certain ones. I have a previous blog about cognitive distortions that will go into greater detail about the different types and strategies used to address them that you can access here:

Below are some of the most common cognitive distortions. You may find them labeled under different names in different resource materials, but the base concepts are the same. Again, everyone will experience some cognitive distortions to some degree in their lives. When they become too extreme or irrational, though, they can lead to unhealthy habits and responses.

Being aware of your negative core beliefs, cognitive distortions, and false positives in your times of stress can help you separate your thoughts from your responses to them. It can help you acknowledge that not all automatic thoughts are facts. Instead, they may be mistakes that our brain has learned to make. Your awareness of this can help you catch them, calm your body’s responses, and choose your own reactions that better serve you in the long term.

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