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Abstract

o deal with the discrepancy, one engages in one or all of these.a. Information Avoidance: To reduce anxiety and dread that new information associated with the illness can bring in, one avoids it to enjoy the current state of things as they are. Although ignorance is bliss, in the case of mental health, information is power.b. Motivated Reasoning: Due to dissonance and inconsistency, we are motivated to adversely reason out the new elements and current information so we can continue with our old beliefs that correspond to our previous notions. It leads to the accentuation of the existing opinions, and hence the comforting impression that unfamiliar insight could well be nothing but overstated. Which, in turn, results in reinforcement of the old convictions and continuance of it. Though it helps reduce discordance temporarily, the root problem continues to increase. If one gets convinced that mental health is just a state of mind and that it’s a matter of shame to have it in the first place, the new information, that it’s a disease that can be cured by cognitive therapy and some pills, will create some dissonance. One can either use this disharmony to improve their life or go back to believing in prior knowledge that remains unhelpful.c. Confirmation Bias: We intentionally pursue facts and pieces of evidence that conform to what we want to think and also, either ignore or shun information that contradicts our conviction. We become interested in seeing what comforts us in the near term and miss the broader perspective, which gives us an erroneous impression of illusive beliefs.Why mental illnesses are more prone to cognitive dissonance as compared to other physical diseases?Sufferers have to pretend that they are consistent with “what is considered normal” engendering to cognitive dissonance, which happens because of social sanctions attached to mental health. In some cases, they are too severe to overcome, as they can be terrifying and dark. The conflating ideas experienced by people create confusion between the re

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al causal inference and what their experience and wisdom tell them in their perplexed moments, and that’s why people need to be illuminated by the actual science behind it. At the same time, they must unlearn the unhelpful bits of their pre-existing understanding and concepts they have in that regard.How does one deal with it?1. The weight attached to the belief or preconceptions before one encountered new information about it: In the case of mental health, notions around it outweigh the rationality for the simple reason that there is little practical, scientific and formal awareness about it. It’s disseminated incorrectly, more often than not, in informal settings than correctly in due form.2. Read more about your convictions and opinions, add more beliefs surrounding it so it can outbalance the information at hand, and pushes you to think in the other direction.3. Work towards reducing the importance of your current belief, contradict it with rational facts and conflicting information. And if possible, change it completely.We need to get on the ball; otherwise, it’s the society that has to pay the price when a considerable number of people in the population become emotionally less attuned with how their beliefs and behaviors can affect themselves and others. Of course, the neural ability to handle emotional and social cues differs from person to person. Still, it is possible to learn, and what we could use is training to teach competencies like psychological aptitude, conflict resolution, and introspection along with applied biology. Every human needs to know what they are made of. By doing so, they can help themselves and simultaneously become a useful resource when others need their help.A brain truly is an incredible place; noise in there can change the way we perceive, misperceive, and process new insights and factors, and consequently, our behavior. This scampering around information to find solace is not taking us forward and sucking our energies to alienate the right solutions away from us.</article></body>

Mental Health

How Cognitive Dissonance Affects Your Mental Health.

“Out of Your Vulnerabilities, Will Come Your Strengths” Sigmund Freud

While there is a biology of depression, and more factors, including genes, individual experiences, and neural elements, are now recognized to understand the complexity of brains. Notwithstanding, two people suffering from the same problem may need different treatments due to distinct underlying causes behind the same trouble. However, real medical advancement only gets harnessed when sufferers, instead of rejecting the information, utilize the same to improve their condition.

Our conditioning is so that we see physical diseases as real and mental ( which is our physical brain too ), on the other hand, as unreal. How these beliefs, quite the reverse of doing any good, become a hurdle in us getting the right treatment at the right time. Yes, time is an essential factor in addressing mental illnesses, just as it is in any other physical disease. It, along with other factors, decides your probability of getting cured.

Where does the time go?

It goes in combatting Cognitive Dissonance that accompanies the disorder one is facing, due to mistaken assumptions and wrong beliefs attached to it, as against to accepting the problem and using new information most rationally.

What is cognitive dissonance, and what do we do when we encounter it?

Cognitive dissonance is a state of mind that is psychologically uncomforting which arises when our prior beliefs about an idea or ourselves, conflict with a piece of new information or experience. Leon Festinger coined the term in a 1957 book “A Theory of Cognitive Dissonance. “ We experience cognitive dissonance when we behave differently from our fundamental beliefs. To deal with the discrepancy, one engages in one or all of these.

a. Information Avoidance: To reduce anxiety and dread that new information associated with the illness can bring in, one avoids it to enjoy the current state of things as they are. Although ignorance is bliss, in the case of mental health, information is power.

b. Motivated Reasoning: Due to dissonance and inconsistency, we are motivated to adversely reason out the new elements and current information so we can continue with our old beliefs that correspond to our previous notions. It leads to the accentuation of the existing opinions, and hence the comforting impression that unfamiliar insight could well be nothing but overstated. Which, in turn, results in reinforcement of the old convictions and continuance of it. Though it helps reduce discordance temporarily, the root problem continues to increase. If one gets convinced that mental health is just a state of mind and that it’s a matter of shame to have it in the first place, the new information, that it’s a disease that can be cured by cognitive therapy and some pills, will create some dissonance. One can either use this disharmony to improve their life or go back to believing in prior knowledge that remains unhelpful.

c. Confirmation Bias: We intentionally pursue facts and pieces of evidence that conform to what we want to think and also, either ignore or shun information that contradicts our conviction. We become interested in seeing what comforts us in the near term and miss the broader perspective, which gives us an erroneous impression of illusive beliefs.

Why mental illnesses are more prone to cognitive dissonance as compared to other physical diseases?

Sufferers have to pretend that they are consistent with “what is considered normal” engendering to cognitive dissonance, which happens because of social sanctions attached to mental health. In some cases, they are too severe to overcome, as they can be terrifying and dark. The conflating ideas experienced by people create confusion between the real causal inference and what their experience and wisdom tell them in their perplexed moments, and that’s why people need to be illuminated by the actual science behind it. At the same time, they must unlearn the unhelpful bits of their pre-existing understanding and concepts they have in that regard.

How does one deal with it?

1. The weight attached to the belief or preconceptions before one encountered new information about it: In the case of mental health, notions around it outweigh the rationality for the simple reason that there is little practical, scientific and formal awareness about it. It’s disseminated incorrectly, more often than not, in informal settings than correctly in due form.

2. Read more about your convictions and opinions, add more beliefs surrounding it so it can outbalance the information at hand, and pushes you to think in the other direction.

3. Work towards reducing the importance of your current belief, contradict it with rational facts and conflicting information. And if possible, change it completely.

We need to get on the ball; otherwise, it’s the society that has to pay the price when a considerable number of people in the population become emotionally less attuned with how their beliefs and behaviors can affect themselves and others. Of course, the neural ability to handle emotional and social cues differs from person to person. Still, it is possible to learn, and what we could use is training to teach competencies like psychological aptitude, conflict resolution, and introspection along with applied biology. Every human needs to know what they are made of. By doing so, they can help themselves and simultaneously become a useful resource when others need their help.

A brain truly is an incredible place; noise in there can change the way we perceive, misperceive, and process new insights and factors, and consequently, our behavior. This scampering around information to find solace is not taking us forward and sucking our energies to alienate the right solutions away from us.