As a refresher, a busy brain is my term for how those with many mental health conditions think and feel in the day-to-day. The brain is busy being vigilant, checking threats and potential threats, assessing and re-assessing any and all data points, and generally struggling to move forward with decisions and actions.
Flickr.com: Kristian Byornard
It is not so much that a busy brain “blocks” your ability to act, but rather passive decision-making is more appealing to the busy brain. Passive decision-making really means that you are not actively making any decision, the decision happens to you, not with you or from you. Family members of patients in an ICU were far more likely to choose a passive role in the care decisions of their loved ones when they were anxious or depressed.
There is a working model in neuroscience that cognitive functions have finite resources available and once those are depleted, cognitive function is impaired and stress impacts working memory and cognitive flexibility.
It is possible that a busy brain depletes energy resources to point where a decision and subsequent action is unattainable.
It is also possible that a busy brain can generate opposing emotional signals. Emotional salience creates a preference for us and without it, we cannot effectively make a decision.
I have mentioned “Elliot” several times on this site already but not the specifics of his experience and history. A good article on Dr. Antonio Damasio’s investigation of this patient’s experience can be found here: How Using Only Logic Destroyed a Man.
For Elliot, there were no emotional responses to guide his decision options due to a tumour that had to be excised and damaged part of his brain. Perhaps for those with busy brains, there are too many emotional responses trying to guide the decision options.
That is, of course, pure conjecture and the point of this installment is really to find a way out of worsening symptoms of an eating disorder or perhaps other mental health conditions right now.
The bottom line is that not making a decision is a default or passive decision and taking no action is a passive action. And those facts are not there to trigger a sense of failure or shame—if making the decisions and taking action to improve your condition were just a matter of will and self-discipline you would already be at your destination.
What follows is a few rules that are designed to keep some safety while navigating how a busy brain reacts to you increasing your decision making and action taking behaviours.
Rules for Making Decisions and Taking Action
Get your rescue kit drawn up ready to use.
Draw up your hourly and daily action plan.
Start immediately or restart immediately (never go with “start fresh tomorrow”).
Use a notebook, app, board whatever works for you to log progress.
For those that find any kind of success in quieting of the mind with yogic breathing or meditation, activate that. If those things do not work for you, get out in nature (not exercise in nature, just be outside) or revive any craft, hobby, interest that you know can engage your mind.
Next week I will get into some details on these rules.