Your Psychological Immune System

The last time you sliced your finger with a knife (perhaps mistaking it for a carrot), did you think your cut would never heal? Unless you have a disease that suppresses your immune system, you most likely assumed your skin would knit back together and your finger would soon be good as new.

When it comes to emotional wounds, however, you may not be quite so optimistic. If someone cuts you with an "emotional knife,"-for instance, firing you from a job or severing a relationship-you're more likely to think you will never recover from the psychological and emotional pain.

Fortunately, the same system that heals your body, your biological immune system, has a less famous little brother called the "pyschological immune system," a catchy but aptly descriptive name coined by psychologists Daniel Gilbert and Timothy D. Wilson.

Your psychological immune system heals your psychological and emotional wounds the way your biological immune system heals your physical wounds, but because it operates beneath your conscious level of awareness, you may not even realize that you have a pyschological immune system.

How Does the Pyschological Immune System Work?

On his website PsyBlog, London psychologist Jeremy Dean wrote about a study performed by Daniel T. Gilbert of Harvard University and his colleagues that looked at how the psychological immune system helps people feel better after they suffer a psychological blow.

In one experiment, people were interviewed for a job and later told they were not selected. Those who were interviewed by only one person bounced back more quickly than those who were interviewed by three people. "It's easier to imagine the decision had more to do with that person's individual preferences," wrote Dean. "Being rejected by three people feels like a more considered judgment."

Gilbert's study and others show how the psychological immune system helps to rationalize, or logically explain away, bad feelings and dull the pain of rejection.

Another way our mind helps us regain emotional equilibrium is its propensity to look for a way to be happy in even the darkest circumstances, persistently seeking that silver lining in every cloud. When your spouse leaves you, for instance, you may rationalize that he drank too much, or spent too much time watching football, or that you no longer have to perform unpleasant chores for him (remember those song lyrics, "One less bell to answer, one less egg to fry, one less man to pick up after...?).

As with every rule, however, there is the exception. The psychological immune system may not work for people who are clinically depressed, according to psychologists Nathan DeWall and Roy Baumeister, researchers who studied how people cheer themselves up when dealing with death. "Clinically depressed individuals tend not to think positively when confronted with the idea of death, suggesting that their psychological immune system may have gone off-track," wrote DeWall. "In contrast, the minds of healthy, non-depressed people typically balance darker imaginings with more hopeful images."

How to Boost Your Psychological Immune System

If you're a psychologically healthy person, the best way to give your psychological immune system a chance to do its job is to refrain from interfering with or trying to hasten the natural emotional healing process, advises Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP) expert Jamie Smart. In other words, you're better off trusting your psychological immune system to do its job naturally, just as you trust your body to heal a cut or get over a cold.

On his NLP website, Smart suggests the biggest obstacles to emotional healing are thinking too much about what is bothering you (especially when it involves angry, resentful or jealous thoughts); worrying or feeling anxious; constantly taking your emotional temperature; trying too hard to 'think positive' ( I will be happy even if it kills me!), and harshly judging yourself or comparing yourself to others.

Just as you can boost your biological immune system by eating broccoli or drinking green tea, you can enhance your psychological immune system by quieting your mind with activities that feed your heart and spirit, whether it's socializing with friends; engaging in a favorite hobby; or practicing mindful techniques, such as Yoga, meditating or listening to music.

Sources:
http://www.spring.org.uk/2009/11/the-psychological-immune-system.php
"Health: Mind counters death." PPI - Pakistan Press International. Asia Pulse Pty Ltd. 2008. Retrieved February 25, 2010 from HighBeam Research: http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-172997624.html
Jessica Bernstein-Wax. "Professor explains pursuit of happiness: Inaccurate memories cloud most decisions." Charleston Gazette. Charleston Newspapers. 2007. Retrieved February 28, 2010 from HighBeam Research:
http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1P2-13961488.html
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