HOW GOOD ARE YOU WITH COPING WITH UNCERTAINTY?

By Dr Armorel Wood

Benjamin Franklin’s famous quote: ‘Nothing is certain except death and taxes’

Research has found that people vary in their ability to tolerate uncertainty. People who are intolerant of uncertainty worry incessantly and may exhibit certain behaviours aimed to remove all uncertainty in daily living. These behaviours may include: seeking reassurance from others, list making, double checking, difficulty delegating, even keeping busy may act to distract them from the uncertainty of life. Unfortunately, even spending time and energy on all these behaviours they DON’T WORK as it is impossible to get rid of uncertainty. The only way to manage uncertainty is to become more tolerant to it; build up your resilience so that you can COPE when things don’t go according to plan.

Uncertainty triggers a sense of threat in our bodies, creating an outpouring of threat hormones, adrenalin, and cortisol, which, in turn, target our body and mind preparing us for fight, flight or freeze. This response is a necessary one for survival to keep us safe if the threat is severe, but in some people this survival instinct is too sensitive and is triggered constantly by the unavoidable, daily uncertainty of living resulting in generalised anxiety. The brain struggles to work out how to keep you out of harm’s way, it looks at all possible scenarios and tries to prepare for every eventuality to eliminate uncertainty -an impossible task that results in constant anxiety. It is common for most people to be a bit uncomfortable with uncertainty, but for people who are very uncomfortable with uncertainty, it is a bit like the allergic response to pollen.

Even when you are exposed to a small amount you will sneeze, and your eyes will run and itch. For those intolerant to uncertainty, it triggers a strong reaction too: they will worry and do everything they can to get away from, avoid, or eliminate that uncertainty. By becoming more tolerant of uncertainty and not spending all that time and energy worrying, you get to realise that you can deal with things even when they don’t go according to plan.

What is happening psychologically?

Our brains can very simply be divided into two parts: the front logical brain that deals with cognition, reasoning and higher functions and the back primitive brain that deals with emotion and automatic responses to keep us safe. When a threat is recognised, this is detected by an area in the back brain called the amygdala which operates like a ‘smoke alarm’. The amygdala drives the stress response which spurs you to take any action you can, even if it is illogical. At the same time the back brain activity inhibits the activity of the front brain, hence ‘STRESS MAKES US STUPID’. In this anxious state we are unable to engage our front logical brain and our thinking is fixed, black and white, often illogical, and unhelpful.

If you want to improve your tolerance to uncertainty, then you need to practise small changes in behaviour in your everyday life. As you start acting ’as if’ you are comfortable with uncertainty it will become easier and easier to reduce the worrying thoughts and feelings and consequent stress response.

Peace is accepting today, releasing yesterday, and giving up the need to control tomorrow.

Dr Armorel Wood MBACP Accred

MNCS

Private Counsellor

M: 07765 915 211

E: woodarmorel@gmail.com

W: mapletreetherapy.org.uk