“Numbing the pain for a while will make it worse when you finally feel it.”
— Albus Dumbledore, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (2000).
This one goes out to all the Harry Potter fans and those who deal with anxiety! To begin, let’s define anxiety and better understand it. ⚡️
Anxiety manifests in the nervous system. The Cleveland Clinic defines the nervous system as “…your body’s master command center and communication network. It controls everything you do, think, and feel—from breathing and walking to learning and memory—by sending electrical signals between the brain and the rest of the body.” This system is evolutionary, something that is activated often without conscious decision-making. It helps with threat appraisal, and our early ancestors relied on it heavily for survival.
Something that shouldn’t feel threatening, like giving a speech in front of colleagues, can feel like a bear is chasing us. The nervous system kicks in, and your heart starts pounding, your palms get sweaty, and you may feel a desire to fight, flee, freeze, or fawn. However, there is nothing actually threatening your life. This can be very confusing to anyone experiencing it, and most of us have experienced this at some point in our lives. The Anxiety and Depression Association of America reports that anxiety is the most common mental health disorder, affecting 40 million adults in the U.S. yearly.
In Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (1999), the third book in the series, during Professor Lupin’s Defense Against the Dark Arts class, students end up facing a boggart hiding in a wardrobe. A boggart is a shape-shifting creature that takes the form of whatever a person fears most, and it’s repelled with the Riddikulus charm, which forces it into a comical shape that can be defeated with laughter. In therapy, we have a tool that is very similar to the “Riddikulus charm.” ✨
It is called cognitive defusion and comes from Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT). Cognitive defusion is defined as, “… stepping back and looking at your thoughts, rather than looking through them…(Therapy in a Nutshell).” In the book, a character named Neville has a boggart that consistently transforms into the cross and angry Professor Snape. He raises his wand and shouts the spell to make the boggart turn into Professor Snape in his grandmother’s clothes. The boggart becomes something comical and silly, and no longer scary.🤪
Just like that… we can overcome anxiety. For instance, we can give our anxiety a name-maybe Bob or Brenda. We can conjure images of Daffy Duck in our minds (just like the boggart in grandma’s clothes), or if you are feeling especially magical, maybe say to yourself or with a flick of the wrist… “Riddikulus!!!” These are just a few ways we can practice the magic of ACT’s Cognitive Defusion (like defusing a bomb), in the therapy room and in our everyday lives.
