The Paradox of Relief
If you live with depression, anxiety, or the lingering effects of a traumatic brain injury (TBI), you probably crave calm—yet the very moment a genuine sense of peace appears, you might tense up, pull back, or even sabotage it. In therapy sessions, Dr. Ron Schwenkler notices this pattern every week. The scientific term is positive affect intolerance: after years of chronic stress or trauma, the brain mislabels good sensations as potential threats.
Why the Brain Can Fear Feeling Good
InsightWhat It Means for Depression, Anxiety & TBI1. “Bad” feels predictable.Familiar sadness or worry is painfully consistent. Sudden calm feels unfamiliar—and the anxious brain equates unfamiliar with dangerous.2. Change equals loss.Letting go of hyper-vigilance means losing behaviors that once kept you emotionally afloat after a TBI or during a bout of major depression.3. Safety rewires circuits.When clients revisit tough memories in a controlled, supportive setting and nothing bad happens, neural pathways update—calm becomes safe again.
The Neuroscience in Plain English
- Threat Detection Gone Haywire
Trauma and chronic stress flood the limbic system with norepinephrine and cortisol. Over time, even mild joy or relaxation can trigger the same “red alert” circuits that fire during panic. - Reward Pathways Go Offline
In depression—and often after TBI—the dopamine system struggles to register pleasure. When a small burst of happiness finally breaks through, the brain treats it like static: confusing, suspicious, worth shutting down. - Neuroplasticity Is the Exit Route
Thankfully, the brain’s wiring is not permanent. With guided exposure to positive states, new connections grow, teaching the nervous system that calm and contentment are safe.
Practical Strategies That Help Clients Embrace the Good
- Guided Imagery & Somatic Titration
Therapists gradually introduce pleasant sensations (warmth in the chest, relaxed breath) while monitoring for early tension. The nervous system learns it can feel good without danger. - Dual-Focus Memory Processing
Techniques like EMDR and Somatic Experiencing let clients “touch” traumatic memories in short doses while anchored in present-moment safety, reducing the startle response tied to positive emotions. - Metabolic & Neuromodulation Boosts
At Mind Spa Denver, we pair talk therapy with:- Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy (HBOT) to improve cellular energy in post-TBI brains,
- Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (TMS) to rebalance mood circuits in depression, and
- Ketamine Infusion Therapy to rapidly soften rigid anxiety loops.
Better-fueled neurons make it easier to tolerate joyful states.
Self-Check: Do You Brace for the “Other Shoe”?
Ask yourself:
- When life finally feels calm, do you start scanning for problems?
- Do compliments make you uncomfortable?
- After TBI rehabilitation or an anxiety flare-up, do you mistrust moments of relief?
If you answered yes, you’re not broken—you’re adaptive. Your brain simply learned the wrong lesson from past stress. The good news: it can unlearn it.
Moving from Surviving to Thriving
Positive affect intolerance shows up across the spectrum—combat veterans with TBI-related hyper-vigilance, parents exhausted by chronic anxiety, professionals battling depression that blunts joy. The path forward is the same: safe, repeated exposure to positive states until the alarm bells fade.
Ready to retrain your brain to welcome relief instead of fearing it? Book a complimentary consultation with our integrative team. We’ll design a plan—neurological, psychological, and metabolic—to help you not just survive, but truly thrive.
