You Are Not Your Thoughts
April 20, 2021 2:07 PM Subscribe
That anxiety you're feeling, it's a habit you can unlearn. An interview with researcher/psychiatrist Jud Brewer on anxiety as an addiction. Transcript. "...we like to think that our thinking mind is in control. But if you look at how behavior is driven, thinking really doesn’t hold a candle to the feeling body. The feeling body — those urges are much stronger. And in the same way we can’t stop our thoughts. I often get people coming to me in a seminar or if I’m teaching a class where they say, oh, how do I just turn off my mind? How do I just stop my thoughts?"
"...And the first thing I say to them is, well, good luck. Tell me if you can get that to work. Nobody’s ever come back and said, I figured out the thought switch and I’ve turned it off. The second thing is, well, I actually think thinking is helpful. Thinking and planning is helpful. But the third piece here is our brains are driven based on how rewarding something is. So if we can actually change our relationship to our thoughts, we can actually get in control.
So I think we’ve been looking in this direction, whether it’s willpower or however you want to think of it — we’ve been looking in the wrong direction. It’s actually we should be looking in the neuroscience direction. How does our mind work? And if we can understand how our mind work, then we can actually hack it..."
"...And the first thing I say to them is, well, good luck. Tell me if you can get that to work. Nobody’s ever come back and said, I figured out the thought switch and I’ve turned it off. The second thing is, well, I actually think thinking is helpful. Thinking and planning is helpful. But the third piece here is our brains are driven based on how rewarding something is. So if we can actually change our relationship to our thoughts, we can actually get in control.
So I think we’ve been looking in this direction, whether it’s willpower or however you want to think of it — we’ve been looking in the wrong direction. It’s actually we should be looking in the neuroscience direction. How does our mind work? And if we can understand how our mind work, then we can actually hack it..."
I agree that the cortisol and adrenaline that high anxiety produces can create a positive feedback loop leading to more anxiety. It's a rush, right? It's energy you can use to do things with. It's power. Of a kind. Dangerous power.
But let me say right now that if you have an anxiety disorder, then that power is too fucking strong for the magic of positive thinking. It's that third rail -- when you touch it, you can't let go.
Anxiety meds can help moderate the power of that anxiety enough that you can talk yourself down e.g. with CBT; in fact I do it all the time now. "No, I don't need to be anxious about that. No, there's nothing to be anxious about. Settle down."
But without the meds, no way.
Just keep that in mind. If you feel like you ought to be able to talk yourself down, but can't, don't feel bad about it. Maybe find some professional advice! Life can be so much calmer.
posted by seanmpuckett at 2:29 PM on April 20, 2021 [69 favorites]
But let me say right now that if you have an anxiety disorder, then that power is too fucking strong for the magic of positive thinking. It's that third rail -- when you touch it, you can't let go.
Anxiety meds can help moderate the power of that anxiety enough that you can talk yourself down e.g. with CBT; in fact I do it all the time now. "No, I don't need to be anxious about that. No, there's nothing to be anxious about. Settle down."
But without the meds, no way.
Just keep that in mind. If you feel like you ought to be able to talk yourself down, but can't, don't feel bad about it. Maybe find some professional advice! Life can be so much calmer.
posted by seanmpuckett at 2:29 PM on April 20, 2021 [69 favorites]
The beloved graybeardmustache Nick Spitzer articulated in his Kuffler Lecture that he believes language is what sets the human brain apart: once we have a word for a thing, we are able to affect the actual structure of our brain. Effectively, rehearsing a word, activates and reactivates a circuit, over and over again, following that Hebbian aphorism "neurons that fire together wire together." We can consciously change the circuitry of our brain. Sammà samkappa.
posted by rubatan at 2:37 PM on April 20, 2021 [6 favorites]
posted by rubatan at 2:37 PM on April 20, 2021 [6 favorites]
You might also look at your drinking habits. Regular alcohol use can cause or contribute to chronic anxiety. Are you anxious all day long, and sometimes wake up at night feeling that the hounds of god are after you? Good time to stop drinking.
posted by Modest House at 3:34 PM on April 20, 2021 [10 favorites]
posted by Modest House at 3:34 PM on April 20, 2021 [10 favorites]
But without the meds, no way.
Definitely.
I have OCD. And I realized pretty early on that the reason it was so hard to shake was because the compulsions actually worked. Not all the time. And they worked less over time, which meant you sometimes had to find new compulsions. But sometimes the sense of relief I got when I did a compulsion was a physical rush. My breathing slowed down, my heart rate slowed down; I calmed down. But of course the intrusive thoughts come back, and the compulsions don't work as well. By the time I reached my twenties, they barely worked at all, and I had to do them every day, for hours a day.
Without medication, I probably still would be.
posted by Ray Walston, Luck Dragon at 4:20 PM on April 20, 2021 [15 favorites]
Definitely.
I have OCD. And I realized pretty early on that the reason it was so hard to shake was because the compulsions actually worked. Not all the time. And they worked less over time, which meant you sometimes had to find new compulsions. But sometimes the sense of relief I got when I did a compulsion was a physical rush. My breathing slowed down, my heart rate slowed down; I calmed down. But of course the intrusive thoughts come back, and the compulsions don't work as well. By the time I reached my twenties, they barely worked at all, and I had to do them every day, for hours a day.
Without medication, I probably still would be.
posted by Ray Walston, Luck Dragon at 4:20 PM on April 20, 2021 [15 favorites]
You might also look at your drinking habits. Regular alcohol use can cause or contribute to chronic anxiety.
I never really started drinking because even in college, I experienced very elevated anxiety the day after drinking. This turned out to be generally a blessing, because I found that so unpleasant that I decided very quickly to be very moderate with alcohol.
posted by BungaDunga at 4:31 PM on April 20, 2021 [2 favorites]
I never really started drinking because even in college, I experienced very elevated anxiety the day after drinking. This turned out to be generally a blessing, because I found that so unpleasant that I decided very quickly to be very moderate with alcohol.
posted by BungaDunga at 4:31 PM on April 20, 2021 [2 favorites]
Mod note: One comment removed. It's generally fine to talk about theories and etiologies of anxiety etc. in the spirit of contributing to the discussion of the article, but please avoid doing that in a way that is dismissive of other people or their experiences. The site guidelines start with "speak for yourself, not others". That's as important in discussions of mental health as it is anywhere else.
posted by cortex (staff) at 5:16 PM on April 20, 2021 [14 favorites]
posted by cortex (staff) at 5:16 PM on April 20, 2021 [14 favorites]
I think there is a physiological thing w/ alcohol and anxiety
posted by thelonius at 5:57 PM on April 20, 2021 [2 favorites]
posted by thelonius at 5:57 PM on April 20, 2021 [2 favorites]
"...how do I just turn off my mind? How do I just stop my thoughts?"
"...well, good luck. Tell me if you can get that to work."
That's literally what different forms of Meditation *do*. I've been able to do that (for various lengths of time) since my 20s - 30s. I've found it incredibly useful.
But I'm not that anxious a person. Don't know if that blocks being able to learn Meditation. Maybe the meds would allow the practice. Don't know.
But I do know (speaking personally) that it takes *work* and *practice*. I got longer and longer time periods where it happened but I'm still talking about the longest being 10s of minutes. Never was interested in pushing it further but the shorter periods were still extremely useful.
posted by aleph at 6:50 PM on April 20, 2021 [3 favorites]
"...well, good luck. Tell me if you can get that to work."
That's literally what different forms of Meditation *do*. I've been able to do that (for various lengths of time) since my 20s - 30s. I've found it incredibly useful.
But I'm not that anxious a person. Don't know if that blocks being able to learn Meditation. Maybe the meds would allow the practice. Don't know.
But I do know (speaking personally) that it takes *work* and *practice*. I got longer and longer time periods where it happened but I'm still talking about the longest being 10s of minutes. Never was interested in pushing it further but the shorter periods were still extremely useful.
posted by aleph at 6:50 PM on April 20, 2021 [3 favorites]
And what alcoholics inevitably seem to suffer.
I had a taste or two of "the fear" after borderline alcohol-poisoning binges. Can't imagine having to live with that chronically, it must be horrible.
posted by thelonius at 8:54 PM on April 20, 2021 [1 favorite]
I had a taste or two of "the fear" after borderline alcohol-poisoning binges. Can't imagine having to live with that chronically, it must be horrible.
posted by thelonius at 8:54 PM on April 20, 2021 [1 favorite]
having to live with that chronically
I mean anxiety on top of crushing hangovers, despair, self-loathing, all the great stuff that's on the other side of a truly excessive drinking episode. Anxiety alone is pretty damn hard.
posted by thelonius at 8:58 PM on April 20, 2021 [3 favorites]
I mean anxiety on top of crushing hangovers, despair, self-loathing, all the great stuff that's on the other side of a truly excessive drinking episode. Anxiety alone is pretty damn hard.
posted by thelonius at 8:58 PM on April 20, 2021 [3 favorites]
aleph, he does address meditation in the interview. He also addresses other things that (might) help.
I like how he describes "injecting" curiosity into a moment, to drive anxiety away:
posted by gakiko at 5:56 AM on April 21, 2021 [4 favorites]
I like how he describes "injecting" curiosity into a moment, to drive anxiety away:
"So if I’m feeling anxious, I can just feel into my body and ask myself, OK, where do I feel this anxiety more strongly? For a lot of folks, they feel it in their chest. Sometimes I’ll feel it in my — if I’m stressed, I’ll feel it my shoulders, or my jaw, or even in my eyes tensing. And then I can get curious and say, OK, where do I feel it more, on the left side or the right side of my body? And then my brain goes, well, I don’t know. Let’s explore. Is it more on the right side or the left side? The answer doesn’t matter, but that little hmm is that indication that we’re starting to get curious as we explore our body sensations. That’s what I mean by injecting a little bit of curiosity."It was an interesting article/interview. Thanks, storybored!
posted by gakiko at 5:56 AM on April 21, 2021 [4 favorites]
It is not called the "age of anxiety" for nothing. We, particularly those of us who descend from European stock, are like skyscrapers lacking a ground floor. I am a anxious person and my mother was too. So I believe that it is partly in my DNA. It hasn't helped that I have lost my sense of smell and taste, i.e. anosmia, for the second time in 8 years. The first time was from 2013-15. My therapist helped me through a big fat neurosis to regain that cinderella of senses, smell or 80% of the send of taste. In December 2019, I had a sinus-ear infection that disabled my sense of smell and taste once again. I have been on 3 mg/day of Klonopin for about 30 years. After I regained my sense of taste and smell in 2015, I felt as if I were a child again. It was such a relief. The Klonopin was left in the bottle. I am all Italian and love to cook, enjoy food and drink wine. It was devastating to lose this precious sense once again. Needless to say Klonopin is once again on the table.
posted by DJZouke at 6:07 AM on April 21, 2021 [3 favorites]
posted by DJZouke at 6:07 AM on April 21, 2021 [3 favorites]
I definitely feel this -- somewhere along the line, I decided I had some kind of social anxiety, and I thought that would make me feel better, to have a name for it, but it doesn't. Thinking I am anxious just makes me more anxious and gives me a ready made excuse to give in to my anxiety. I think I'll take a look for his book.
posted by jacquilynne at 7:25 AM on April 21, 2021 [1 favorite]
posted by jacquilynne at 7:25 AM on April 21, 2021 [1 favorite]
That anxiety you're feeling, it's a habit you can unlearn.
first thing that comes to mind when I read this is (bolding mine):
"The Conspiracy formed the background of your entire life. It is inner conflict. It is your inferiority complex, or your delusion of grandeur. It is nervous tension, the habit of worry. It is your darkest, most debilitating fears ... "
from the one and only Book of the Subgenius, first encountered by me at exactly the right time (the early 1980s, my early twenties) as it was exactly the kind of spin I needed on a whole pile of stuff I was fumbling through cognitively, psychologically, spiritually. And it still comes back every now and then. A sleepless night, a seemingly inexplicable blowup with a friend or family member -- fuck you, Conspiracy!
and when I say conspiracy, what I really mean is C.O.N.S.P.I.R.A.C.Y --
short for Cliques Of Normals Secretly Planning Insidious Rituals Aimed at Controlling You, is the evil organization that the Church of the SubGenius was created to combat. It is also known as the Conspiracy of Normals, the Conspiracy, or just the BIG CON. "Bob" Dobbs infiltrated the Conspiracy and has devoted his life to destroying them from the inside. The rebel god NHGH and his son, the Anti-"Bob", are the main forces behind the Conspiracy. The Conspiracy also includes the Men in Black, the Illuminati, and the New World Order, as well as destructive cults like Scientology.
though, of course, I don't really mean anything, the Church of the Subgenius being a parody religion whose books you should only find in the Humour section. Long story short -- for young me, the way out of "the habit of worry" involved learning to laugh at the absurdities I was capable of buying into, and thus learning to laugh at myself. And yes, the long, long battle continues ...
posted by philip-random at 7:41 AM on April 21, 2021 [9 favorites]
first thing that comes to mind when I read this is (bolding mine):
"The Conspiracy formed the background of your entire life. It is inner conflict. It is your inferiority complex, or your delusion of grandeur. It is nervous tension, the habit of worry. It is your darkest, most debilitating fears ... "
from the one and only Book of the Subgenius, first encountered by me at exactly the right time (the early 1980s, my early twenties) as it was exactly the kind of spin I needed on a whole pile of stuff I was fumbling through cognitively, psychologically, spiritually. And it still comes back every now and then. A sleepless night, a seemingly inexplicable blowup with a friend or family member -- fuck you, Conspiracy!
and when I say conspiracy, what I really mean is C.O.N.S.P.I.R.A.C.Y --
short for Cliques Of Normals Secretly Planning Insidious Rituals Aimed at Controlling You, is the evil organization that the Church of the SubGenius was created to combat. It is also known as the Conspiracy of Normals, the Conspiracy, or just the BIG CON. "Bob" Dobbs infiltrated the Conspiracy and has devoted his life to destroying them from the inside. The rebel god NHGH and his son, the Anti-"Bob", are the main forces behind the Conspiracy. The Conspiracy also includes the Men in Black, the Illuminati, and the New World Order, as well as destructive cults like Scientology.
though, of course, I don't really mean anything, the Church of the Subgenius being a parody religion whose books you should only find in the Humour section. Long story short -- for young me, the way out of "the habit of worry" involved learning to laugh at the absurdities I was capable of buying into, and thus learning to laugh at myself. And yes, the long, long battle continues ...
posted by philip-random at 7:41 AM on April 21, 2021 [9 favorites]
Thanks for posting this. I'll admit that I sneered a bit at the headline when I scrolled past it in my Facebook feed the other day, but I'm glad I got curious and stopped to listen this time. Went straight from the end of the episode to my library app to put a hold on an audiobook copy of Brewer's Unwinding Anxiety. There were quite a few folks ahead of me in the queue, but I'm trying not to worry about that.
posted by EatTheWeek at 7:41 AM on April 21, 2021 [5 favorites]
posted by EatTheWeek at 7:41 AM on April 21, 2021 [5 favorites]
Another important bit of the alcohol side-avenue is that it disrupts sleep quality. Sleep quality is vitally important for a whole host of reasons, one of them being the healthy regulation of mood. Distressed sleep, distressed regulation, and the maladaptive feedback loop of that is very easy to see--especially when alcohol use becomes part of an attempt at self-medicating.
posted by Drastic at 8:32 AM on April 21, 2021 [4 favorites]
posted by Drastic at 8:32 AM on April 21, 2021 [4 favorites]
The neural homunculus who whispers mean things about what I've written has smugly pointed out this edit: the maladaptive feedback loop of that is very easy to see when you're not in it. Which is of course some of the true viciousness of anxiety disorders and disorders in general, the distortion of what you're seeing when inside the systems of yourself.
Thanks for posting this. The fellow's book has now joined my to-read pile!
posted by Drastic at 8:58 AM on April 21, 2021 [4 favorites]
Thanks for posting this. The fellow's book has now joined my to-read pile!
posted by Drastic at 8:58 AM on April 21, 2021 [4 favorites]
Then there's the blood flow issue.
There's only so much blood to go around inside a skull. If particular brain regions start firing hard and demanding more of it, they get it, and the result is that other regions get somewhat starved of it. Regions closer to the brainstem get priority. So if your amygdala is having a fine old time bunging on a huge anxiety surge or a huge fear surge or a huge rage surge, it's literally shutting down your prefrontal cortex by depriving it of blood, sometimes to an extent that makes thinking and judgement difficult to impossible in the moment.
Kids who grow up with trauma and spend much of their early lives in raw survival mode end up wired in ways that leave them particularly susceptible to this, which I think helps explain why so many people with that kind of history find thought-centred therapeutic approaches like CBT baffling and useless even though they're known to work so well for so many.
If you're having difficulties and a history of trauma, and you don't already have somebody with a background in trauma on your care team, it will probably pay you bigtime to add one.
posted by flabdablet at 12:49 PM on April 21, 2021 [14 favorites]
There's only so much blood to go around inside a skull. If particular brain regions start firing hard and demanding more of it, they get it, and the result is that other regions get somewhat starved of it. Regions closer to the brainstem get priority. So if your amygdala is having a fine old time bunging on a huge anxiety surge or a huge fear surge or a huge rage surge, it's literally shutting down your prefrontal cortex by depriving it of blood, sometimes to an extent that makes thinking and judgement difficult to impossible in the moment.
Kids who grow up with trauma and spend much of their early lives in raw survival mode end up wired in ways that leave them particularly susceptible to this, which I think helps explain why so many people with that kind of history find thought-centred therapeutic approaches like CBT baffling and useless even though they're known to work so well for so many.
If you're having difficulties and a history of trauma, and you don't already have somebody with a background in trauma on your care team, it will probably pay you bigtime to add one.
posted by flabdablet at 12:49 PM on April 21, 2021 [14 favorites]
It's unfortunate that some mental health practitioners have the "one church" syndrome, i.e. prescribing one particular technique or approach without acknowledging the others.
From the research I've seen, the following things help many people some of the time. (Not all people, all the time!).
Cognitive-behavior therapy
Acceptance and Commitment therapy
Meditation and Mindfulness
Regular exercise and sleep
Anti-anxiety medication.
Moderate or no alcohol/stimulant use
Solid social supports.
Engaging in creative activities.
(did I miss anything?)
There are also promising indications with other therapies like cold-water immersion, EMDR and psilocybin.
It would be wonderful if every how-to-deal-with-anxiety book had a preamble with the complete list of "things to try".
posted by storybored at 6:03 PM on April 21, 2021 [5 favorites]
From the research I've seen, the following things help many people some of the time. (Not all people, all the time!).
Cognitive-behavior therapy
Acceptance and Commitment therapy
Meditation and Mindfulness
Regular exercise and sleep
Anti-anxiety medication.
Moderate or no alcohol/stimulant use
Solid social supports.
Engaging in creative activities.
(did I miss anything?)
There are also promising indications with other therapies like cold-water immersion, EMDR and psilocybin.
It would be wonderful if every how-to-deal-with-anxiety book had a preamble with the complete list of "things to try".
posted by storybored at 6:03 PM on April 21, 2021 [5 favorites]
It would also be wonderful if there were not, in general, such a hard conceptual split made between mental and physical processes when it comes to the behaviour and experiences of human beings.
Causality is very rarely a one-way thing when it comes to systems whose structure and function is as completely dominated by feedback loops as people are. In particular, no emotion is a thing that happens solely "in our heads".
Every emotional experience also involves bodily systems far more accessible than the insides of the skull, and paying more attention to that fact than is commonly done can yield valuable insights, both for self-help and for a well-informed choice of therapeutic interventions.
posted by flabdablet at 10:37 PM on April 21, 2021 [4 favorites]
Causality is very rarely a one-way thing when it comes to systems whose structure and function is as completely dominated by feedback loops as people are. In particular, no emotion is a thing that happens solely "in our heads".
Every emotional experience also involves bodily systems far more accessible than the insides of the skull, and paying more attention to that fact than is commonly done can yield valuable insights, both for self-help and for a well-informed choice of therapeutic interventions.
posted by flabdablet at 10:37 PM on April 21, 2021 [4 favorites]
But I'm not that anxious a person. Don't know if that blocks being able to learn Meditation.
I'm not sure about anxiety but I do know that the traditional kind of sitting meditation is really not great for me. As in, I would have to leave the workplace if they were doing it. And I'm married to someone who teaches meditation and does cold water (Wim Hof) training, and have tried it enough to know it's really not for me.
But I do do a kind of walking meditation, and also practices like yoga and martial arts really really have helped me a lot, and I recognize a few things in this piece. One is the idea that exploring your feelings is not the same as being flooded by them, and for me things where I can connect with my body and feelings while expending energy (or in the case of yoga more like channeling it, depending on the type and specific poses) is a powerful way to do that. It has to be both though.
The other is that the more I defined myself as "someone who needs to move to get grounded" and less "someone who can't ground herself easily" the more things improved for me. And that was mostly a thought exercise because when I really looked back at my life, there were actually very few periods that I wasn't active (I didn't own a car, for example, and judging from my steps now was probably walking 20,000 steps a day).
For a long time, because of my particular neuroatypicality (PTSD/DID) I did self-define as a kind of...easily overwhelmed person? I avoided a lot of situations that I found triggering, which is what I needed to do for a while. But then that became its own prison. I was fortunate in that my life kind of provided a lot of the pushing out of my comfort zones.
I really recognize that misconception he talks about in this piece of trying to think/willpower your way out of something, and (for me) finally having to engage that feelings piece. Also, again very personal, but I had to separate the parts of my experience I could control (learning to deal with a lot of the PTSD collateral damage) and the parts I can't (my weird brain is going to weird brain, and be a collective.) But that wasn't a life sentence, just something to accept and move - not on from, but forward with.
Anyways, I kind of expected to get angry with this piece, because I'm very sensitive to the idea that you can just think your way out of whatever biochemical hell your life has landed you in, and instead I found it illuminating.
posted by warriorqueen at 5:58 AM on April 22, 2021 [5 favorites]
I'm not sure about anxiety but I do know that the traditional kind of sitting meditation is really not great for me. As in, I would have to leave the workplace if they were doing it. And I'm married to someone who teaches meditation and does cold water (Wim Hof) training, and have tried it enough to know it's really not for me.
But I do do a kind of walking meditation, and also practices like yoga and martial arts really really have helped me a lot, and I recognize a few things in this piece. One is the idea that exploring your feelings is not the same as being flooded by them, and for me things where I can connect with my body and feelings while expending energy (or in the case of yoga more like channeling it, depending on the type and specific poses) is a powerful way to do that. It has to be both though.
The other is that the more I defined myself as "someone who needs to move to get grounded" and less "someone who can't ground herself easily" the more things improved for me. And that was mostly a thought exercise because when I really looked back at my life, there were actually very few periods that I wasn't active (I didn't own a car, for example, and judging from my steps now was probably walking 20,000 steps a day).
For a long time, because of my particular neuroatypicality (PTSD/DID) I did self-define as a kind of...easily overwhelmed person? I avoided a lot of situations that I found triggering, which is what I needed to do for a while. But then that became its own prison. I was fortunate in that my life kind of provided a lot of the pushing out of my comfort zones.
I really recognize that misconception he talks about in this piece of trying to think/willpower your way out of something, and (for me) finally having to engage that feelings piece. Also, again very personal, but I had to separate the parts of my experience I could control (learning to deal with a lot of the PTSD collateral damage) and the parts I can't (my weird brain is going to weird brain, and be a collective.) But that wasn't a life sentence, just something to accept and move - not on from, but forward with.
Anyways, I kind of expected to get angry with this piece, because I'm very sensitive to the idea that you can just think your way out of whatever biochemical hell your life has landed you in, and instead I found it illuminating.
posted by warriorqueen at 5:58 AM on April 22, 2021 [5 favorites]
the idea that you can just think your way out of whatever biochemical hell your life has landed you in
is a consequence of broken models of what it is to be a person that have our intellects, rather than our integrated selves, as an assumed locus of control. And when I say selves I mean our whole selves, not just the bits behind the eyes.
We ignore our physicality at our peril.
I blame Descartes.
posted by flabdablet at 9:18 AM on April 22, 2021 [7 favorites]
is a consequence of broken models of what it is to be a person that have our intellects, rather than our integrated selves, as an assumed locus of control. And when I say selves I mean our whole selves, not just the bits behind the eyes.
We ignore our physicality at our peril.
I blame Descartes.
posted by flabdablet at 9:18 AM on April 22, 2021 [7 favorites]
I'm also quite fond of Dr. Jill Bolte Taylor's observation that our brain architecture means that although many of us may think of ourselves as thinking creatures who feel, biologically we are feeling creatures who think.
posted by flabdablet at 9:49 AM on April 22, 2021 [10 favorites]
posted by flabdablet at 9:49 AM on April 22, 2021 [10 favorites]
I'm very sensitive to the idea that you can just think your way out of whatever biochemical hell your life has landed you in
I don't know who said it or how academically sound it is, but it's always stuck with me: "You can't think yourself out of a problem with the same brain that got you into it."
posted by rhizome at 2:29 PM on April 22, 2021 [3 favorites]
I don't know who said it or how academically sound it is, but it's always stuck with me: "You can't think yourself out of a problem with the same brain that got you into it."
posted by rhizome at 2:29 PM on April 22, 2021 [3 favorites]
So if we can't think ourselves out of anxiety, do you think that physical exercise will ever be enough? I do notice it soothes me but am often at such a height of anxiety literally moving to go and do something seems impossible and I'm rooted to the spot. I have also found that with covid I've gotten tired of walking my neighbourhood, and am struggling without a yoga studio to go to to do at home-I'm just so tired of being here!
posted by starstarstar at 9:51 AM on May 13, 2021
posted by starstarstar at 9:51 AM on May 13, 2021
That's a good question. Anxiety for me is adrenalin-oriented (or at least -feeling), with a bit of fixation on...something. I'm sure it's all closely related to "worry," but for me the fixation is something that the exercise helps with: forgetting the source of anxiety, at least for a little while.
I'm a bike rider, so the adrenalin gets used in cardio exertion, so I feel better afterwards, but as far as nipping it in the bud goes I haven't found a technique for that yet. :)
One thing that I have noticed is that I'll be feeling anxiety about, y'know, life, and have misgivings about getting out on the bike. "Oh, but I should do X first," temporarily and conveniently forgetting that the other half of my anxiety is the procrastination that means I will not actually do X first, so at the end of the day X will remain undone and I will still not have exercised. The thing that I've noticed is that if I say "screw it" or otherwise power through my inertia to get on the bike, within a block, or 5min, or 10 breaths, I forget why I didn't want to get on the bike.
I don't know if forgetting is the cure for anxiety, but it does appear to be at least a soothing mechanism, and as far as alternatives go exercise has worked better for this kind of forgetting than pot has, overall.
posted by rhizome at 6:09 PM on May 13, 2021 [1 favorite]
I'm a bike rider, so the adrenalin gets used in cardio exertion, so I feel better afterwards, but as far as nipping it in the bud goes I haven't found a technique for that yet. :)
One thing that I have noticed is that I'll be feeling anxiety about, y'know, life, and have misgivings about getting out on the bike. "Oh, but I should do X first," temporarily and conveniently forgetting that the other half of my anxiety is the procrastination that means I will not actually do X first, so at the end of the day X will remain undone and I will still not have exercised. The thing that I've noticed is that if I say "screw it" or otherwise power through my inertia to get on the bike, within a block, or 5min, or 10 breaths, I forget why I didn't want to get on the bike.
I don't know if forgetting is the cure for anxiety, but it does appear to be at least a soothing mechanism, and as far as alternatives go exercise has worked better for this kind of forgetting than pot has, overall.
posted by rhizome at 6:09 PM on May 13, 2021 [1 favorite]
« Older Languishing | Look at Curry Man Newer »
This thread has been archived and is closed to new comments
That’s really different than if we really look at it as, oh, I’m a person and here are feelings of anxiety. Oh, those come and go. So we start to have much more fluidity with our experience. And we start to see that we can also let go or we can shed some of these sweaters, let’s say, that we’ve been wearing all the time. We’re like, oh, this is a very comfortable sweater. This is my anxiety sweater. Oh, I can actually take this off. I don’t need this anymore."
posted by storybored at 2:09 PM on April 20, 2021 [12 favorites]