Practical Neurohacking: Interrupting the Sick Response

When your body sends you 'sickness signals', you can get caught up in a feedback loop where you unintentionally make the sickness more powerful.

How can this happen?

A friend of mine recently took a dip into the ocean, and his body initiated an immune response. He felt sick and started running a fever. His body is trying to send him a message that this is a dangerous activity and shouldn't be repeated.

A subtle way that you can make a sickness like this more powerful is by validating the sickness.

In a previous blog post, I explained how the amygdala interprets your conscious response to its actions. In this case, I'm describing how the amygdala responds when you almost get run over by a bus.

You can respond to this in three different ways:

"1. Validate the stress response. “Oh my god, I almost died!”. Worry about the bus almost killing you, fret about what a terrible driver that was. Make sure that the near-death experience stands out in your mind. This response will tell the amygdala that it’s correct in laying down a new neural pathway, clearly associating the street+bus=death connection in your brain.

2. Shake it off. Don’t respond to the stress in any significant way. Watch yourself react in a dispassionate, observational manner. This response will ALSO tell the amygdala that it’s correct in laying down a new neural pathway, clearly associating the street+bus=death connection in your brain.

3. Smile and laugh at the bus. Make jokes about the experience. Shake it off, like water off a duck’s back. Keep smiling and laughing, then turn your attention to something more interesting. This response will confuse the amygdala, and relay the message that it is INCORRECT in laying down a new neural pathway. That street+bus=death neural pathway will either decrease in strength, or will never be created in the first place.

In the case of the fever and other immune responses to the dip into the ocean, you can send the body one of three signals:

1. You can validate the response by thinking about how dumb you were to swim in the ocean. This response will tell the amygdala that it’s correct in laying down a new neural pathway, more powerfully associating the ocean=sickness-and-fever connection in your brain.

2. You can also take a neutral approach to the illness, not worrying about it too much, and not engaging in too many 'sick' behaviors like drinking chicken soup and watching a lot of bad TV. This response will ALSO tell the amygdala that it’s correct in laying down a new neural pathway, more powerfully associating the ocean=sickness-and-fever connection in your brain.

3. Smile and laugh at the ocean, smile and laugh at your predicament, and flood your brain with powerful endorphins. Think about the awesome things you're going to do later today, visualize them clearly in your head! Then get outside of your comfort zone and change your behavior -- don't act like a sick person. (Don't get silly with this, if you have a 102 degree fever than you shouldn't be out doing crazy things. But if you laze about in bed, eating comfort foods you associate with being sick, and doing activities you associate with being sick, then the next time you go swimming in the ocean your body's reaction will probably be stronger). You need to confuse your brain by giving it 'healthy' signals like laughing and smiling, this will help to scramble the ocean=sickness-and-fever neural pathway that your brain is busy creating.

This is a very powerful technique, and it applies to many things in life. I have reduced my food and chemical sensitivities by over 99% using similar techniques to this.

The great thing is, this technique is much easier to implement if you catch it early in the neural pathway-building process. Once a neural pathway is clearly established by dozens of repeated experiences, it's much harder to over-write and normalize.

Let me rephrase this all in a very simple, actionable way: If your body is responding inappropriately to some sort of trauma or stress, then interrupt your body's response by smiling and laughing and doing things a sick person shouldn't do.

The hardest part about this technique is finding the motivation to do it! Your brain is very good at coming up with excuses as to why you should be a bum and lay around in bed. Your body is very good at telling you that it really, really, really needs some ice cream. Your emotional core is very good at comforting you with reassuring feelings, once you surround yourself with the foods and experiences you associate with being sick (In other words, if mom always served you chicken soup when you were sick, then your emotional core will reward you with some awesome brain chemicals if you gift yourself with some chicken soup when you're sick).

Most of the signals you receive from your brain and body will be telling you to feed this neural pathway, but you need to do the opposite! You need to laugh, smile, and act healthy. Fake it until you make it! (This isn't just about the future, either. You may find that this technique allows you to recover from your illness a lot faster).

I'll end by saying that there are a few major caveats you need to be aware of:

1. When I'm talking about an 'inappropriate response' from your body I'm talking about relatively mild responses like low-grade fever, mild rashes, or mild brain fog. You should NOT try this technique on stronger symptoms -- you should go see a doctor!

2. There's a difference between 'inappropriate responses' from the body and 'appropriate responses' from the body, and it's sometimes hard to tell the difference. For example, running a fever after eating wheat is probably an inappropriate response from your body. However, running a fever while you have the flu virus in your body is probably an appropriate response -- the higher body temperature is part of your body's defense against the virus, and interrupting this defense may damage your body and keep you sicker for longer.

3. While this technique is powerful, in terms of neurohacking it's pretty mild! :) This is a good thing. You should probably start our neurohacking by picking a relatively minor problem, and by using a relatively simple and easy-to-apply technique like this one. Early success will inspire you to keep pushing! More importantly, however, you will start to learn to recognize the difference between 'inappropriate responses' from the body and 'appropriate responses' from the body which have evolved to keep you safe.

Originally written on 2013-11-07