5
The game changing assumption:
Your brain CAN change!

Many people, who have been struggling with their anxiety for a long time, eventually (understandably) react with resignation or even depression.

Too often, they have experienced helplessness due to the use of ineffective or even counterproductive anxiety fighting or anxiety prevention strategies.

In their resignation they are similar to the really "poor dogs" from Martin Seligman's famous experiments on "learned helplessness" (Maier & Seligman, 2016):

In these experiments a group of dogs had learned that they could prevent to receive an electric shock by pushing down a small lever. In a second group of dogs, however, this lever was ineffective. No matter what behaviour these dogs performed, they received electric shocks. Although the researchers made sure that both groups ultimately received the same number of electric shocks – i.e. both groups had to endure the same amount of suffering – a follow-up experiment revealed something astonishing. When the same dogs were brought into an environment where they could have escaped further electric shocks by jumping over a low barrier (see Figure 1), two-thirds of the dogs who had previously learned that there was nothing to do about the electric shocks were completely lethargic about their fate. They just let the electric shocks go by inactively. However, the dogs who had learned that there was a way to prevent the electric shocks acted quite differently. Almost all of them jumped over the barrier into a pain-free future (Maier & Seligman, 2016).

Figure 1: By jumping over the barrier, the dogs were able to avoid an electric shock, which was administered through metal grids in the floor of the box.

For a long time I made a similar experience when dealing with my social anxiety. I tried many things that didn't work and I tried some things that could have worked, but I didn't hang on long enough to notice the progress. Like the dogs, at a certain point I became extremely frustrated.1 Several studies have shown that successful social relationships are essential for our well-being. Therefore, the social disengagement (avoidance behaviour) that occurs with social anxiety very often leads to depression (Beesdo et al., 2007). I came more and more to the conclusion that this was probably my fate. Social interactions would probably always trigger stress and anxiety in me. I supposed that this was my personality. And personality – I was convinced – could not be changed (But that’s wrong! See the study by Kennair et al., 2020 for evidence for personality changes after an anxiety therapy). However, it is exactly this basic conviction, which some people had drummed into them by significant people in their lives (parents, teachers or close friends), through which our fate seems completely set. Because it's only logical:

If you don't believe that change is possible, then you won't try it at all.

In hundreds of experiments, Stanford Professor Carol Dweck, together with research colleagues around the world, has been able to show how serious the consequences can be when people believe that personality cannot be changed (Burnette, O'boyle et al., 2013; Dweck, 1999; 2012).

Those who believe that personality is unchangeable see many situations and challenges as a threat, since they are supposed to tell them something about their personality ("If I act stupidly in a situation, it means that I am stupid."). As a result you try a lot to look good on the outside ("performance goal" orientation). For students this may mean that they cheat in test situations to get the best score (Dweck, 2013), but for people with anxiety it may mean that they completely avoid situations in which they are afraid of looking bad ("If I avoid the situation, nothing bad can happen.").

People who are strongly convinced that their brain – and thus also their personality – is open to change react quite differently. Instead of relying on a short-term publicity-effective showmanship (performance goal), they are prepared to take on challenges in the long term in order to learn more and more (learning goal orientation). For people with a growth mindset, failure does not mean a great threat to their self-image, but is simply another lesson to learn in order to do better next time. It is therefore no wonder that quite a few research studies have shown that people who have been taught a growth mindset perform better, have lower depression scores and are less afraid of challenges (Blackwell et al., 2007; De Castella, Goldin et al., 2015; Miu & Yeager, 2015; Schleider & Weisz, 2016; Schleider & Weisz, 2018; Yeager, Lee & Jamieson, 2016). 23

You may be wondering: "That sounds all well and good. And it would certainly be quite liberating to incorporate a bit more of this growth mindset into my own thinking, but there is something called genetic predisposition that influences our personality… I have no desire to adopt a worldview that is not true at all.“

This is a valid objection. Our genetic predisposition does play a role in anxiety disorders (Wittchen & Hoyer, 2011). Some people simply have more anxiety than others because of their predisposition (and early childhood experiences). This is a fact that cannot be denied. However, with the right methods – in sports one would say with the right training – even they can make enormous progress. The therapy studies presented in this book provide plenty of evidence for this. And as in sports, it is possible that with adequate training you can easily outperform people with “more talent” who exercise rarely or not at all.

5.1 How can I develop a Growth Mindset?

At this point in time the most effective method to achieve a fundamental mindset change is to present real scientific evidence and experience reports that the human brain and thus also the human personality can change (see e.g. Schleider & Weisz, 2018). In order to continue to have an effect even after many months, such an intervention does not need to be of a long duration (e.g. 30 minutes) and can even be delivered via computer.

The focus is on conveying the concept of neuroplasticity:

In many ways our brain is like a muscle. Frequently used information highways (synapses of nerve cells) get strengthened (see Figure 2). Rarely used information highways get built back. The bigger the data highway (the greater the synapse strength), the better the information transfer. Just like traffic on a motorway, information naturally flows better if an additional motorway (resp. data lane) is added.

Figure 2: Both modifications lead to a better transmission of information.

It is this fantastic ability to change and adapt that enables the brain to compensate for even gigantic losses of substance (e.g. after surgical removal of large parts of the brain). Even renowned brain researchers are amazed at the fact that in some cases even 50% loss of brain mass (e.g. after surgery) is hardly noticeable or that a child is able to speak two languages fluently in spite of the removal of the speech areas of her brain. If such effects are possible even with an (injured) half brain, what is possible with a whole brain?

Figure 3: If parts of the brain are missing, the brain scanner only shows a shadow (right). Nevertheless, some people do not notice this loss of grey matter, because the remaining parts of the brain are able to compensate for the loss of substance through restructuring processes.

The use-dependent neuroplasticity of our brain gives each of us a kind of superpower. Because we can change our brain through our thinking, feeling and acting in a self-determined way. Emotions and concentration are the fertilizer to sprout synaptic connections. Isn't it fascinating to realize that at the very moment you are reading these lines, innumerable changes are taking place in your brain?

If you are still in doubt that change is possible, I invite you to consider this book as a kind of growth mindset workshop. In the course of this book you will be introduced to a number of interventions and therapy methods which have already made enormous changes in the lives of hundreds of thousands of people. These changes are visualized in the many graphs and diagrams in which intervention groups and control groups were compared with each other. It is worth studying these diagrams carefully because they are further proof that people who may have been in a similar situation as you, are now able to make great progress towards an anxiety-free life.