Insecurity - The Conspiracy Trap

by Richard C. Raynard, Ph.D.
Licensed Clinical Psychologist

Why buy into conspiracy theories?  It's the emotion of insecurity, the feeling of being ineffective and unable to take care of yourself. Powerlessness is a powerful emotion.

Insecure

The evidence is that conspiracy believers are more persuasive to those with low-self-worth and powerlessness (Swami et al, 2010).

The emotion of insecurity can team up with the frustration of anger and create cynicism.  "Nothing will work; the forces are against you". In this way the believer tries to understand why the insecurity feelings exist.

Why do insecurity feelings arise in the first place? Young and Klasko (1993) show it can be learned at home at an early age when a child is made to feel helpless or a failure. Hoffer (1953) felt that those raised in poverty and ignorance make for an especially vulnerable, insecure young adult whose life feels ineffective, or "spoiled".

Sadly. the internet supports the natural tendency to look for evidence to support what you believe. And efforts to debunk the conspiracy belief are taken to be part of the conspiracy. See the "backfire effect" of Nyham & Reiffer (2006).

A circular path develops. The believer in conspiracy theories comes to feel less in control, and this insecurity helps keep the belief alive and well. A dead end, it there ever was one.

The corporate plutocracy is a well-developed conspiracy right out in the open. Wouldn't that satisfy most conspiracy theorists?

About Dr. Raynard

Dr. Richard Raynard is a licensed clinical psychologist with 35 years experience resolving a broad range of emotional problems. As a cognitive-behavioral therapist who has specialized in anxiety and phobic disorders since 1980, he has spent the last 35 years fulfilling his life-long desire to explore and define the true purpose of emotions and how people can easily use emotions to create meaning and satisfaction in their lives. Dr. Raynard's series of books on emotions can be found on Amazon.com. His other books include Don't Panic, and Anxiety & Panic Medications.

On the Road with Panic

by Richard C. Raynard, Ph.D.

Why would anyone drive in the gutter and blow out 4 sets of tires in a year? Or an accountant have to draw a map and take a picture of every new town he drove into? Or an oil truck driver chain himself to his steering wheel? Or a grandmother smuggle a miniature poodle within the large sleeves of her coat when she traveled by air?

It's PANIC - that overwhelming uproar in the body of heart racing, faint, nauseous, dizzy, choking, weak and more. It is the most common emotional disorder and the most hidden at the same time. And one study found that driving phobia was the most common of all phobias!

The explanation: the sensitivities of most phobics can be found in traffic, where you have crowding, no exits, being far from home, in unfamiliar places, high noise levels, being alone,  and no one to help you.

Most phobics don't get much credence and cover up after getting little sympathy. "It's just anxiety, get over it,"  My survey of over 100 phobic clients showed the average time to seek psychological help from the first panic episode was 9 1/2 years!

Helen (pseudo) saw that driving as close to granite curbs and picking up glass, metal and all kinds of trash made no sense. But she felt rushed, crowded and not in control. She realized a blowout put her in worse trouble than before.

Progress was measured in inches as Helen gradually practiced more distance from the curb plus relaxation methods and worry control. Her very first practice was in an empty lot, learning to judge curbside distance, her husband following and encouraging.  In a few weeks, using exposure therapy, she was driving normally with little concern.

One last irony: though very common and untreated, it is a well known condition and very treatable!

Get the word out, will you?

Licensed Clinical Psychologist
About Dr. Raynard
Dr. Richard Raynard is a licensed clinical psychologist with 35 years experience resolving a broad range of emotional problems. As a cognitive-behavioral therapist who has specialized in anxiety and phobic disorders since 1980, he has spent the last 35 years fulfilling his life-long desire to explore and define the true purpose of emotions and how people can easily use emotions to create meaning and satisfaction in their lives. Dr. Raynard's series of books on emotions can be found on Amazon.com. His other books include Don't Panic, and Anxiety & Panic Medications.

Boredom - a Lack of Emotion!

by Richard C. Raynard, Ph.D.
Licensed Clinical Psychologist

Boredom is painful. It's waking up and seeing nothing of yourself in the day and going to sleep later realizing that tomorrow will be the same - empty. It can happen to the nicest people.

Confusion abounds over the cause of boredom. The researcher, Danchert, argues in Mind (2013) that boredom is an attention disorder: a lack of discrimination between novel and familiar. Possible solution: train the bored to recognize when an event is novel. Sorry - the lack of discrimination describes the result of boredom, not the cause.

Only recently has boredom become a widely recognized social fact. In Medieval times it was called the sin of sloth. The early French called it nonchalance or languor. In 18th century England, the leisure class struggled with vacuity, tedium, listlessness and insipidity. In the early 19th century it was finally called "boredom", along with rise of factory labor. Interesting.

Bored

Still, the evidence is accumulating in recent studies. Boredom is more likely among the young, the more extraverted and more intelligent. The more prone to boredom have frustrated needs and high activation levels. The very bored can be reckless sensation-seekers, who try to escape boredom in risky ventures. Krasko (2004) sees a major cause in degraded, factory-like education in which students see nothing of themselves. Some are more bored in their leisure time than at work or school. One researcher noted that the bored have little self-focus and cannot "access and understand their emotions" (Eastwood et al, 2007).

To me, boredom is the lack of desire or emotional contact with what you care about. If you can listen to yourself, open your heart to what you care about, and go after what is most meaningful to you, then you can be illuminated and fulfilled.

What a mouthful! To get in touch with what you love and care about is an awesome, immense undertaking. I am humble before that task. But a few have written about how to get there.  Look up the works of Sher, Frankl, Wertheimer, Bingamen, and others.

They are some of the pioneers of boredom.

About Dr. Raynard
Dr. Richard Raynard is a licensed clinical psychologist with 35 years experience resolving a broad range of emotional problems. As a cognitive-behavioral therapist who has specialized in anxiety and phobic disorders since 1980, he has spent the last 35 years fulfilling his life-long desire to explore and define the true purpose of emotions and how people can easily use emotions to create meaning and satisfaction in their lives. Dr. Raynard's series of books on emotions can be found on Amazon.com. His other books include Don't Panic, and Anxiety & Panic Medications.

Disgust, the Emotion of Boundaries

by Richard C. Raynard, Ph.D.
Licensed Clinical Psychologist

Argh!

Ugh! Yuck! Barf! Eeuw! PeYu! Disgust is the emotion behind the relation and thought "I want no part of it!". We see whatever as tainted, repugnant and offensive.

This emotion is not only about unhealthy or dirty goods, but also about things that taint or corrupt our sense of Self, or even the community to which we belong.

Disgust naturally leads to the erection of boundaries to prevent contamination (see my blog on Loyalty).  Even contacts with the other side, the wrong friends, or who you are seen with can be "disgusting". In fact there is nothing that cannot be labeled as disgusting. Habits, speech, a hairdo, clothing - all can be branded by some trend-setter or "authority" as disgusting.

Disgust finds a natural home in moralizing efforts to define what is good or bad for us. Disgust can be developed into Guilt with the addition of anger, fear of punishment, threat of banishment.  "You oughta be ashamed!" expresses disgust with your very sense of who you are.

Well, I am disgusted with disgust! The fact is, every moldy, rotten, smelly thing has its place in the great cycle of life. Example: 6 to 8 pounds of foreign microbes in our gut help us digest food and provide vital nutrients. Effort to conceal or fence in our bad behavior avoids dealing with it and benefiting from it.

When we stopped burying garbage in the back yard in the 60's and began recycling, we finally realized that potentially all of our garbage is recyclable or useful.

Are you ready to deal with your own - - - garbage?

About Dr. Raynard Dr.
Richard Raynard is a licensed clinical psychologist with 35 years experience resolving a broad range of emotional problems. As a cognitive-behavioral therapist who has specialized in anxiety and phobic disorders since 1980, he has spent the last 35 years fulfilling his life-long desire to explore and define the true purpose of emotions and how people can easily use emotions to create meaning and satisfaction in their lives. Dr. Raynard's series of books on emotions can be found on Amazon.com. His other books include Don't Panic, and Anxiety & Panic Medications.

My Loyalty is Your Enemy

by Richard C. Raynard, Ph.D.
Licensed Clinical Psychologist

The instant we become a member, loyalty divides us from non-members. Sure, some boundaries can be porous: those of family, hometown, volunteers, etc. let us come and go.

The emotion of "belonging" is powerful. To belong gives us protection, status, a safer place for our empathy and compassion and even a sense of identity.  It bonds all together. And divides us.

Neighbors

Other memberships have tests and trials to prove you are worthy of membership.  School grades, college entry, connections professions, and all elite memberships have hard boundaries. You are "in" or "out".

In strict memberships, tests of loyalties are broad: attendance, clothing, rituals, flags, emblems, passwords, boot camps, etc.  Outsiders are "other people", heathen and the unwashed.

In clans, tribes, cults, and sects, boundaries are like barrier reefs and define your personal worth. Violation of code brings betrayal, banishment, excommunication. Beliefs, rituals, clothing - and other branding methods - affirm your membership.  In the extreme, offenses can lead to isolation, warfare, and revenge lasting centuries. Think of North and South, Shiites and Sunni, Hatfields and McCoys, believers and non-believers.

"Can't we all get along?" Yes, if we find ways to stop demonizing others unlike us, see purity as a perversion, and open our hearts.

Our immediate neighbors have Hawaiian, Asian, Mexican, Indian and black roots, with both ranching and big city backgrounds. Honestly, it doesn't appear that we even notice. I could wish this for all.

About Dr. Raynard 
Dr. Richard Raynard is a licensed clinical psychologist with 35 years experience resolving a broad range of emotional problems. As a cognitive-behavioral therapist who has specialized in anxiety and phobic disorders since 1980, he has spent the last 35 years fulfilling his life-long desire to explore and define the true purpose of emotions and how people can easily use emotions to create meaning and satisfaction in their lives. Dr. Raynard's series of books on emotions can be found on Amazon.com. His other books include Don't Panic, and Anxiety & Panic Medications.