In our lives many moments that compel us to hold our breath, wait, and our future is unclear. Usually the time you spend watching news, which can change everything, is accompanied by excitement and hope, fear and anxiety. But now we are beginning to understand that our ability to deal with these disturbances varies, and that the inability to properly handle them can be our physical and psychological well-being. Besides, the fact that our ability to whip in our maze periods has diminished over the past decades. This has been accompanied by tremendous effects on many aspects of our lives, from medical advice and options to dealing with personal conflicts, political tensions, and even long-term existential threats, such as climate change.
Fortunately, there are ways to be patient in the uncertainty bouts that invade our lives, as well as ways we can use to build resilience. It may be true that nothing in life is certain, but we can all learn how to get through the maze of life better and get away with it without scars. The possibility of a bad thing is more difficult for the soul than the full certainty of its occurrence. The maze is, of course, the first episode of hell in the divine comedy of the Italian novelist Dante.It is a place where people have lost all hope but are sick with nostalgia, a place described as dark, foggy, dreary and sunken, and where what is mistakenly understood as screams of pain is exhales of sadness.
Lack of knowledge is not good; we are curious by nature, and we like to be aware of everything that is happening, what may happen, and what the long-term effects of our current actions are. Our brains are driven to predict the future, and our understanding of the world is generated by combining our memories of the past with the senses we now have, so that we can best guess the results. Uncertainty inherits anxiety.
In fact, the uncertainty is so disturbing that people prefer electrocution over the possibility of something. This is evident from an experiment conducted by researchers at the University College London when they made a group of people play an electronic game in which snakes hide behind certain rocks. Each time the participants found a snake, they received a light electric shock. Later, the computer measured the level of uncertainty using the players' guesses and response to stress based on the amount of sweating and the size of the pupil. People were more nervous when they didn't know if there would be an electric shock than it was when they were fully confident of being exposed to it.
"It's a situation left uncertain," says Benjamin Rosser of the University of St. Morris Liverpool in Britain. "If you're in a situation where something bad is about to happen, you know what will happen and you can think of ways to deal with it. If you're in a foggy situation, Vague, you will be in a state of alert, without the ability to fully prepare for any outcome, whether negative or positive. Take, for example, periods of economic setback, wouldn't you feel more comfortable when you were sacked rather than waiting for this inevitable moment?
Scientists call this the "intolerance of uncertainty", and this intolerance affects the way we experience our daily lives, from waiting for the bus to waiting for news from the hospital about someone we love. “This means that in the uncertain conditions of life, two people who both have the same information will behave in completely different ways,” says Roser. Let's say your partner was supposed to be back from work 20 minutes ago, those with low levels of uncertainty would assume that the person is stuck in traffic, while people with advanced levels of uncertainty would assume that they had an accident or that anxiety would take them to When that person comes home.
Safety behaviors in the absence of a tangible threat weaken the ability to adapt
Certainly, the high probability of ambiguity can sometimes be positive. "There are certain jobs where this is feasible," says Michel Dougas of Concordia University in Montreal, Canada. He knows what will happen a little, but there are certain functions that are useful in some aspects, such as brain surgery or criminal investigation. "
But overall, absolute hatred for the unknown is not good. It calls for fear, anxiety, and fragility. People with higher levels of uncertainty engage in what Dugas calls “safety behaviors.” “These are strategies that prevent undesirable outcomes from happening in our future. Talking to your partner over the phone to check on him all the time is one of the most striking examples.” Although safety behaviors allow us to reduce uncertainty and anxiety, it is paradoxical to overwhelm them. "Safety behaviors in the absence of a tangible threat weaken resilience," says Dugas.
A laboratory experiment demonstrated this, when healthy people were asked to engage in safety behaviors to prevent the spread of germs, for example by washing their hands each time they touched the door handle. By the end of the week, these people had shown an increasing avoidance of pollution tests and exaggerated the threat of pollution, which means that too much safety behaviors obscure our knowledge of the importance of uncertainty. If you are not going to go through the black days, you will not realize how brilliant you deal with them, says Dugas.
It is difficult to estimate the numbers of those with high intolerance of ambiguity. It is not included in the psychiatric diagnostic manual as a stand-alone case. Rather, it is what doctors call the "psychological fragility factor" of other conditions, such as generalized anxiety disorder, which are the most important factors contributing to determining whether or not people will develop anxiety disorders in the first place.
The worst that might happen
So how do you know the best solution to deal with ambiguity? You can use a test developed by Dougas and his colleagues to decide to what extent you agree with 27 phrases like "It's unfair to be ambiguous." Another technique used by therapists is called “intimidation interview,” where you are asked to think about an existing insomnia, such as the outcome of an employment application, and then you are asked what concerns you most in this situation.You may say that you need more money, then they will ask you what concerns you about money. Then, they say, "Where will I borrow money? What if I have to borrow with my credit card? Will my children have to move to another school?"
“We keep exploring your anxiety until we get to the bottom,” says Francis Maiten, professor of psychology at the University of Sussex, UK, codifying all the 'what if' scenarios generated by the main anxiety, and the amount of negative outcomes you can imagine. Your mystery. " This test is often used before and after psychological counseling to check its effectiveness, rather than to examine how uncertainty affects your life. Many factors can play a role in how ambiguity affects your life. “It's a personality trait, and there is an overlap between our personality traits and our life experiences. If I can't tolerate ambiguity but my life is very familiar, I won't have any problems. If my life is chaotic, I have experienced a degree of anxiety that amounts to uncertainty. " But there are greater health effects of uncertainty. "It affects all forms of health outcomes," says Paul Han of the Maine Medical Center Research Institute.
“Anonymous wrestling can put tremendous pressure on relationships,” says Dugas. “When partners suffer from high uncertainty, they may leave each other immediately instead of waiting and seeing what happens. People who have problems organizing any kind of relationship may have In the first place, because they are not ready to go into the first phase of the mystery, do you call me? Do you like it? Should I invite her to lunch? This makes them very reluctant to shape the relationship, and when they make the effort they attract more uncertainty about the future from the beginning. , Which alienates the other and deports them. "
If you are afraid of dogs, we will expose you to them slowly to help you develop an understanding that most dogs are not dangerous.
But the good news is that our anxiety about the unknown is manipulated, so that we learn to increase our resilience. In one experiment, a group of students was asked to read a story in which the main character had a high or low probability of ambiguity and attempted to position themselves within her mindset. Later, their endurance was tested. After the manipulation, the group that read about a character who suffered a greater collapse because of the intolerance of ambiguity generated much greater steps in the post-trial intimidation interviews about her personal concerns.
In the real world, you should treat your inability to face uncertainty as if you were treating phobia, says Dugas. “If you are afraid of dogs, we will expose you to them slowly to help you develop an understanding that most dogs are not dangerous. Probability of ambiguity. " “To help people recover from their fear of ambiguity, we bring them into an experiment that includes their safety behaviors.
Bright sides
But our use of safety behaviors has been increasing over the past two decades, as the uncertainty has increased dramatically, according to Nicholas Carlton, in a research conducted by the University of Regina in Canada with his colleagues, when their recent research in 52 studies showed students that the uncertainty increased by a fifth among 1994 and 2014. The team believes that mobile phones and Internet connectivity, which have increased significantly in the same period, may be the reason, by urging us to increase the use of safety behaviors by providing immediate access to emergency services, dear people, and information that is not always available to help us, says Dugas. "Our safety behaviors have flourished thanks to our mobile phones." Following his instructions to reduce his safety behaviors, Dougas stopped using a mobile phone. "You know what? Nothing terrible has happened to me yet," he says.
However, there are strategies to help you overcome uncertainty without involving your mobile phone or seeking professional help. Throwing yourself on an interesting task can give you the right distraction and let time pass, for example. Mindfulness meditation can help you stay current and prevent you from worrying about the future. Don't forget that this degree of intolerance can be useful, however, because it helps you lower expectations. Thinking about the worst can mitigate the damage if something goes wrong, but timing is the deciding factor.
To avoid unnecessary anxiety, try to think about uncertainty for some time, and you'll find that most of the time you're worried about the possibility of something bad, it hasn't.
To avoid unnecessary anxiety, you should assume the best as long as it is possible instead of assuming the worst throughout the waiting period, says Kate Sweeney of the University of California. Finally, it may be useful to focus on finding bright aspects of any bad news, although we face additional troubles alongside our own, including the political situation around us.
To face this kind of insomnia with more adaptability, Metin has one last tip. Instead of frustrating yourself or worrying about trying to solve every possible problem, try to think about uncertainty for some time, and you'll find that most of the time you're worried that something might happen Bad it didn't happen, and try talking to others so you know how they treat them. "You have to take a step back in order to realize your way of dealing with uncertainty. Not everyone has it, because others may not feel the same about the situation," Sweeney says.
Unknown paralysis
The impact of the intolerance of excessive ambiguity can range from daily anxiety to acute anxiety, and at its worst it can bring us into a coma. In 2016, a group of researchers in Sweden reported a high prevalence of withdrawal among asylum-seeking children and adults facing deportation. More than 400 cases of depression were recorded, and children were withdrawn into a coma requiring tubal feeding and the disappearance of any pain reaction. Although this is a case of refugees in Sweden, there are similar patterns around the world that appear in reaction to sudden periods of uncertainty, but the good news is that there is a way to overcome it.
How to build resilience when life is a maze?
1. Write down the “safety behaviors” you rely on to deal with the uncertainty of something, and then try to reduce these behaviors step by step.
2. Challenge yourself to let what you don't know happen without using safety behaviors.
3 - Assume the best as possible, and do not assume the worst only when the end of waiting.
4. Distract yourself so that time passes faster.
5. Practice mental meditation in order to remain implanted in the present.
6. Try to find any bright aspects of a situation that carries a negative result.
7. Talk to others about the ways in which they deal with uncertainty, and try to embrace their personal perspective.
8. Try to endure uncertainty for some time and see what happens.
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Translation: Farah Essam.
This report is translated from New Scientist and does not necessarily reflect the location of Medan.