Some among us can clearly identify the various problems with ourselves, at the same time, find ourselves unable to do anything about them. Taking to Instagram on March 31, Jeff Guenther, a licensed professional counsellor based in Portland, revealed that this is who therapists call the high insight, low change person.
“I want to acknowledge how incredibly painful and crazy this is because there’s something uniquely demoralising about it. Like ignorance is almost easier. At least then you have an excuse… But when you know exactly what you’re doing, you can see the pattern. You can narrate it in real time, and you still can’t stop. That is a very specific kind of hell,” expressed Jeff.
He went on to discuss the cause of the condition and what can be done to mitigate it.
The reason behind the condition
Jeff explained that thinking and behavioural change are influenced by different parts of the brain. The latter is operated by the deeper layers, which are more influenced by habit rather than reasoning.
In his words, “Insight lives in your cortex – the thinking, analysing, narrating part of your brain; but behaviour change, that’s operating way deeper. And the parts of your brain that run on habit, emotion, survival – those parts don’t care how smart you are.”
Sometimes, insight can also work against an individual, as the more one understands themselves, the better they get at explaining their behaviour. This feels like productive action even though it is not, noted Jeff. “It’s just narrating your own stuckness and increasingly sophisticated language.”
How to bring effective change
To stop analysing issues and start getting things done, the first step is to accept that one needs to do something even when they do not feel ready to do it. This is because chances are they will never be ready, shared the therapist.
“Second, start by doing the embarrassingly small versions of the thing, not the big, huge version you think you should be doing,” he continued. “The version that feels almost too easy to count. Because your brain, the deep part, the part we’re trying to reach, it doesn’t learn from grand gestures. It learns from little repetitions.”
At first, the actions might feel fake, but that is perfectly alright, insisted Jeff. One should not wait for them to feel authentic, but rather build the groove first and let the feelings catch up later. All that is needed is positive forward movement.
The second thing that needs to be done is figuring out who else is aware of the condition and bringing the person into the fold. As Jeff explained, “Shame loves privacy. The more isolated that gap stays, the more power it has over you. You bring one person into it, one real person, not your notes app, and something shifts. Not magically, but the dynamic changes when it’s witnessed.”
Note to readers: This article is for informational purposes only and not a substitute for professional medical advice. This report is based on user-generated content from social media. HT.com has not independently verified the claims and does not endorse them.
