‘Shooting the messenger’ & other ways the primitive brain avoids doing mind/body work

‘Shooting the messenger’ and/or 'avoidance of the messenger' and other ways the primitive brain avoids doing mind/body work:

The lizard/reptilian brain (one's primitive brain) uses various tactics to avoid the emotional work necessary for mind-body symptom relief, especially when faced with processing anger or rage threatening one's sense of safety or relationships (as in TMS). This defence mechanism causes the brain to resist emotional processing in subtle and overt ways, often without conscious awareness.

The defence mechanism/tactics are not personal flaws but signs that outdated survival circuits remain active. The key is to notice and make space for these defences while continuing to take steps to feel and express the emotions beneath one's symptoms, despite one's lizard/reptilian brain’s objections. Understanding and naming these avoidance strategies enables this.

Understanding lizard/reptilian brain behaviour

Primitive survival mechanisms trigger automatic responses such as fight, flight, freeze, appease, or fawn. These responses are often activated by perceived threats or stress, which may no longer be real or are exaggerated in modern life.

Recognising these reactions as survival strategies, not conscious choices, enables engagement of one's more evolved brain regions (like the prefrontal cortex) to pause, reflect, and choose more adaptive responses. This fosters self-awareness and promotes emotional regulation techniques such as mindful breathing, grounding, and reflective thinking that calm the nervous system and prevent impulsive reactions driven by fear or anger.

Over time, this leads to reduced anxiety, improved social interactions through integration of emotional/social cognitive functions with older brain parts. It also reduces defensive behaviours and supports healthier processing of emotions like anger and rage without overwhelming survival responses.

In essence, understanding the function of the reptilian brain provides insight into the brain's innate protective mechanisms, enabling individuals to engage with these primal responses consciously rather than being dominated by them. This awareness fosters the capacity for psychological resilience, as it allows for intentional modulation of instinctual behaviours that serve survival but may otherwise compromise reasoned decision-making.

'Shooting the messenger' and/or 'avoidance of the messenger' effect

When anyone—therapist, friend, or one's own conscious self—highlights any of these avoidance behaviours (below) or emotional roots, one's brain may respond with anger, frustration, denial, ridicule, criticism of those 'messengers' and/or avoidance of those 'messengers' because the feedback threatens its survival strategies.

Common ways the lizard/reptilian brain avoids 'the work'

1. Distraction with symptoms: Amplifies physical symptoms (pain, discomfort, fatigue) to overshadow emotional awareness, making bodily treatment feel more urgent than addressing underlying emotions/feelings (e.g. of rage or anger).

2. Rationalisation and minimisation: Uses logical excuses to avoid emotional work, such as believing the issue is purely physical or diminishing emotional triggers.

3. Self-Doubt and confusion: Creates scepticism about mind-body connections or processes (“Maybe this is nonsense,” “What if I’m wasting my time?”), stopping deeper engagement.

4. Procrastination and avoidance: Encourages delaying therapeutic exercises (“I’ll do it tomorrow”) or distracts attention to other tasks and activities, e.g. phone scrolling.

5. Perfectionism and over-control: Seeks the “perfect” or "silver bullet" method or guarantee before starting, leading to endless preparation without action.

6. Excessive analysis and/or looking for reasons why one is a 'special' or 'rare' or 'exceptional' or 'difficult' case and mind/body work won't work for you: Discussing and analysing things to the nth degree is another distraction and diversion that the lizard/reptilian brain uses, keeping one stuck in thinking rather than feeling and doing the emotional work. And considering oneself to be a 'special', 'rare' and 'difficult' case puts a block on starting or continuing to do 'the work'.

7. Flooding with other emotions: Substitutes direct anger with more acceptable feelings like guilt, anxiety, or sadness, avoiding core issues.

8. Outcome dependence: A significant avoidance behaviour—focusing on needing guaranteed success before engaging in 'the work'. When someone points out that this is a "hiding to nothing" and blocks progress, the brain becomes defensive and reacts by criticising and/or 'shooting the messenger’. This defensiveness protects survival strategies by rejecting discomfort or challenge from feedback, reinforcing resistance to emotional work.

9. Comparing progress and timetabling: A very common often counterproductive behaviour is having a mental timetable regarding losing symptoms and/or comparing one's progress with others to include how long it took for others to experience improvement of symptoms or to lose symptoms. This is liable to lead to disappointment and despondency and be used by the brain to question and stop one from doing 'the work'. The brain does not like being told that this is often unhelpful; such feedback can trigger defensiveness because the brain perceives this as a threat to its strategy of protecting one from perceived failure or danger.

10. Resistance of progress being typically non-linear and/or being concerned and/or becoming preoccupied with the level of progress and/or the rate of progress, and/or being impatient with the process: Can trigger significant frustration, discouragement and lack of determination. The primitive brain interprets perceived slow or uneven progress as a potential threat to survival or success, often responding with anxiety, impatience, or self-doubt. This can activate defensive mechanisms such as heightened stress, avoidance behaviours, or a tendency to 'shoot the messenger'—rejecting feedback that challenges these perceptions—thereby impeding motivation.

11. Constantly searching for someone who has fully lost their mind/body symptoms who had exactly the same symptoms as one's own: Finding someone with similar symptoms is usually not enough, and even if an exact match is found, that is often not enough either; there will be the need to find other such cases and so on. This causes procrastination with regard to starting or doing 'the work'.

12. Doubting that the lizard brain can cause all sorts of different symptoms, not just pain, but fatigue, IBS, itching sensations, swelling etc: Puts a block on starting or continuing to do 'the work'.

 

This is really useful, @BloodMoon. Thank you! I recognize myself in a number of the things you listed.

 

This is such a great list and so useful to have it in one place. Bookmarking this when the TMS doubt hits me.

 

Avoidance tactic #12 was my biggest obstacle until I read about @miffybunny's and @TG957's symptoms and their recovery stories and also read The Divided Mind, The MindBody Prescription and The Hidden Psychology of Pain by Dr James Alexander. It took me that not so 'little' lot to accept that the lizard brain can cause all manner of symptoms!

 

#12 is becoming clearer to me, too...it's like every few weeks I realize that another thing which I have always thought of as structural bad luck is TMS.

For example, intense neck/shoulder/arm pain that I have had on and off throughout my life and suddenly popped up again in the middle of the night after a great day...not sleeping weird or anything...just sudden intense pain. Well, there are trigger points, etc. etc., and I've *always* thought of this pain as structural. Like, "unlike everyone else, when I use my arm it makes this fire happen in my trapezius because using my arm somehow damages me." And just this week, for the first time ever, I've been able to say, "Wait...that totally does not happen. Just using your arm does not create injury or pain. That's not a thing."

It's TMS. It's always been TMS. But I have been convinced for 30 years that it was structural!! Because why else would it hurt?

So yes indeedy, the brain can create ANY symptom. Understanding this is a step by step process, it seems! I wonder what sudden realizations in this area are still ahead for us (or at least for slow learners like me), I wonder?

Reading @Baseball65 's posts always helps me with this...the body HEALS from injury and is also not HARMED by ordinary use.

 

This is excellent. I’ve worked hard to weed these out. I usually only stumble over parts of #10 now, but find it easier to just stop it as soon as I notice…

 

It's understandable that you thought that as we're conditioned from a young age to 'think physical' with any symptoms we experience, so it's ingrained. (Amongst other symptoms, I experienced pain, very severe at times, in my sacroiliac regions for many years particularly when sitting and, despite my consciously knowing and believing that it's TMS, these days when any discomfort occurs there, my brain is still liable to automatically leap to imagining what's going on with my ligaments in that area, which I immediately combat with reminding myself that there is absolutely nothing wrong with my ligaments.) I look upon it as being a 'habit' of thinking, but, as with all habits, it can be broken. As Dr Sarno advised 'think psychological'. Anyway, imo this is a big break through realisation for you. Time now to keep telling your brain it's being ridiculous when it causes you symptoms ~ the gig is up!

 

Thank you, @BloodMoon ! That's really encouraging. I will keep going. Despite feeling like, um, crap

 

Or even Extra-ordinary use. Or uncommon use.
I just went and spent 10 hours throwing baseballs after barely picking up a ball for a long minute. It was during a film shoot and we didn't have a lot of other stuff to do.
I caught a sneaky idea in the back of my head saying 'you might be a little sore tomorrow'....but I talked to it and said that was Bullshit. In fact, I directly addressed it's phony claims, but DID Pay attention to how much I hate everybody in the film industry...that one even felt good in a bad way. I bad mouthed the whole lot of them out loud driving home.

And I didn't think about it again and went and worked 8 hours of hard labor the next day. In fact, it wasn't until I read this post that I remembered the sneaky thought.

ANY dis-ease that sneaks past the Wall of Sarno can make a symptom. ANY recurring symptom....No...Every recurring symptom is TMS.

The ones that come out of nowhere? TMS.

I had a horrible cramp waking up from a nap yesterday. I didn't wonder 'what did I do'...I wondered what life thing was making me unconsciously angry...it was my dog. She wanted her walk and wasn't gonna let me relax.
I didn't tell her to F-off... I took her for a walk, but acknowledged absolutely clearly to myself that the cramp was there to remind me that I get miffed about having to be the perfect dog owner.

 

Yep, crucial not to wonder 'what did I do?'. Personally, I've found that when I'm 'making enquiries', I also need to look at what I'm fearful and/or dreading and/or in a quandary about... which may have an underlying anger element.

 

This is a hard hurdle for me to jump over. My experience is that when I try to "be normal," I get hurt. I immediately thought to myself reading this, "But @Baseball65 is strong. He does heavy physical labor every day, so his muscles are ready to throw a baseball."

Now, I'm not weak. I do physical chores around the house, ride bikes, carry firewood, and shoot baskets every day with my kids. I carried and bore and nursed (and carried some more) four children. I walked 75 miles in 6 days in June. I'm tallish and muscular for a woman, though not "toned."

But I get scared to push it. I feel weak. I know I can't do a pull-up. I know I'm exhausted all. the. time. (And tense and clenched. I work on releasing that daily, now that I'm aware its TMS-induced.)

But then, I also thought to myself, "But there was a time when @Baseball65 felt weak and scared, too."

 

Dixie,
If you wanted, you could pick something to do and slowly get stronger. I’ve done that a lot of times in my life. The trick is consistency. Before I got these symptoms, I walked every evening at dusk for 5 years. I went from being pretty weak to being strong. I started with a very short distance. Anything would work. There are lots of good exercise apps, too. (Also: I imagine you’re so tired cuz you’re a mom!)

 

@Diana-M I saw your last but one posting on this thread late last night, to which I was going to respond this morning, but it seems you've deleted it. One of the things I was going to say was that with the 'second level' of TMS (as I think you called it) have you tried doing what happens on the 'first level' of TMS, i.e. kicking -- have you imagined kicking the annoying and disappointing bastards that have got you down etc., in the past as well as in the present? Your lizard brain obviously wants to kick when you're angry (like when your team loses) and other stuff in the present because it does it automatically without any instigation from your conscious self, so your lizard brain might be responsive to you visualising kicking with regard to your anger from the past, and let go. Anyway, just a thought and no need to respond if you'd rather not.

 

Ha! Great observation! I like that idea. Thanks, @BloodMoon. I always appreciate your thoughtful feedback. (I deleted because I sometimes think I’ve just blabbed a little too much. )

 

I like hearing everything you have to say, @Diana-M !