The brain is amazing. It can process 11 million bits of data per second. Now that is a lot of information to sort through, prioritize, and decide what is important. Oh, and we do all this without thinking about it. We don’t have awareness that it’s being accomplished. I can’t imagine being able to sort through 11 million pieces of anything in an hour, let alone one second, and I am really thankful that I have a brain that has this whole secret superpower side hustle down. Out of that 11 million bits of data, what do we end up paying attention to?
We pay attention to the things we find salient. (Here’s that part of the blog where I give you a dictionary definition on a weird word.) Oxford dictionary defines salience as “the quality of being particularly important or easy to notice.” Looking at a photograph, it’s easy to notice the one yellow umbrella in a sea of black umbrellas. The yellow one is particularly salient. It’s noticeable and it stands out. In psychology, salience can be things that captures our attention (like that yellow umbrella) or input that attracts attention because of past experience and associations. An example of this last part—salience due to our past experiences— is like always knowing where emergency exits are wherever you go because our past experience tells us it’s important to have an escape plan.
Salience can define our past, influence our present, and shape future experiences.
In the brain, we have a salience network. The salience network is a collection of different brain areas that are involved in evaluating and identifying what is important and what we need to pay attention to. Data pours in from other brain regions (remember that 11 million bits per second) as well as our past experiences and associations, and the salience network works at breakneck speed. It interprets information like body awareness, emotional awareness, pain reception, empathy, and both internal and external sensory signals. Internal sensory signals are the messages from the body about what’s going on inside, such as feeling hungry or being in pain. External sensory signals are what we pick up from what is going on around us through our vision, hearing, touch, scent, and taste.
The salience network gives us a broad perspective of what’s going on, moment by moment. With all this information, the salience network helps us decide what’s most vital.
When we have experienced certain mental health conditions, this broad but instantaneous view is filtered more negatively. It is distorted. We can view situations as more threatening or more emotionally loaded.
This can be “all-caps-kind-of bad.” For example, you might have a great romantic relationship with someone you love: a safe, healthy, intimate partner. But with trauma, a lover’s caress could trigger re-experiencing your worst moments. For those who have served in the Armed Forces or as a first responder, seeing or smelling blood may trigger moments you’d rather forget. These are far from the only salient triggers out there. Anything you see, smell, touch, taste, hear, variations in temperature, or sense internally can be a trigger.
Our bodies may try to respond to past events in the present moment. This creates some twilight-zone-like time warp, like you are both trying to deal with the past and trying to deal with the present situation at the same time. The feeling that “I’m here now but feel like I’m there then.” This dual reality can be overwhelming—and debilitating.
Now, the good news. The good news is the conditions we’ve been talking about are extremely treatable. They are conditions, that although serious, one can be in recovery from. Instead of having triggers and traumas surround you, what if it was noticeably more peace? More resilience? More growth?
This is not an empty fantasy. There is more and more research being done about both “post traumatic growth” and “post traumatic resilience.” Working with a therapist and other supports is vital and will help you to process experiences slowly and gradually.
Some therapies look at integrating both cognitive (top down) approaches with body (bottom up) approaches. It makes sense if you are having these intense reactions that are associated with cues from your five senses that physical ways of addressing these issues may help. Often a combination of approaches that incorporate the mind, body, emotions, and spirit are used because symptoms can be so all encompassing. Recovery is not a cake walk. It often involves dealing with whatever it is we’ve been trying not to deal with. But recovery can happen.
About 12 years ago, I learned that I no longer met qualifications for a PTSD diagnosis. I had gotten help and put in the effort, time, energy and “all the things” that I needed to do. I still deal with some anxiety, but I have learned to use tools and make meaning and space for myself. There is a quote I really love by Viktor Frankl; “Between stimulus and response there is a space. In that space is our power to choose our response. In our response lies our growth and our freedom.”
I learned to pause before reacting, use my tools, my supports, and develop space—especially when it seemed like there was no room to do so. People now comment how peaceful and calm I can be.
There is growth and healing that occurs by addressing the events that cause us such suffering. Earlier, I told you that salience can define our past, influence our present, and shape future experiences.
We also have power to choose how we respond to the past, present, and future.
Friend—it might be time to make your recovery something that is salient—that is, something that is noticeable, important, something that stands out, and is meaningful. I am envisioning a deep peace for each of you.
Comments