Emotions can also be adjusted through alterations to cognitive appraisals, and psychological
techniques such as cognitive therapy and rationalemotive therapy help people critically examine their
beliefs and goals in ways that can markedly improve their mood. Drugs used to treat anxiety such as
Valium and Xanax change neural processing but can also alter bodily processes such as heartbeat.
Hence emotions construed as a combination of bodily perception and cognitive appraisal can be
altered by behaviors and treatments that affect one or both of these. We can sometimes avoid the
affective affliction of weakness of will by activating the amygdala to side with the prefrontal cortex
against the nucleus accumbens, as when fear of bad health helps to overcome tendencies to eat or
drink too much.