decadeOfSA
Well-known member
Xanax XR
What cured your SA...
- Thread starter lily
- Start date
Icecube
Well-known member
Here is a 'trick', a sort of mental exercise that I have used that have helped me, but unfortunately it's effect wasn't longlasting, so I think you need to do it more frequently to make it effective enough. The solution seems easy, but I find it hard to do(because of the subconscious mind always wanting to sabotage it). Maybe if others try it out, they will find it less hard, I don't know.
First you need to think of the most recent event where you were suffering from SA pretty bad. Then visualise it and make it as real as possible, as if you were there watching yourself. (the effectiveness of the exercise is dependant for a great deal of how real you can make it) Also visualise the reactions of other people and your own.
Notice that's it's also you who is sitting here in a safe place, visualizing yourself having a 'bad SA trip', so it's not that you have to try to relive such a moment, only watch it.
From the moment you think you can't watch it because you think it's 'too horrendous', it means that you're not really looking at it. You may *think* that it's too horrible to watch, but if you catch such a thought, you need to realise that in fact you haven't really looked at yourself, because this is your JUDGEMENT/perception about the situation that causes the anxiety(and makes you anxious to look at it), not the symptoms of SA(trembling, blushing, stuttering,..) that you want to watch here. So forcing yourself a little to watch yourself may be necessary, because the subconscious mind is still associating the SA with horrible feelings, which is what you now are trying to alter by watching yourself from a safe place.
Our judgement about the SA symptoms('I don't want this', 'it's ridiculous', 'it's too embarrassing') is creating resistance and it is this resistance that causes the awful feelings. Because if you think about it, how could blushing for example make you feel embarrassed? Blushing is your face starting to get red, it's not the blushing that causes the embarassement.
So the purpose of this exercise is to change your thought about what you initially feared and alter your experience about it.
I remember I did this exercise once, and I could see myself and I felt FREE. Because once you watch yourself in that scenario feeling relaxed, your subconscious mind associates the SA symptoms with a new experience(of being at peace) and a new positive or neutral thought arises from that experience making it 'not that bad at all'. AT that point the subconsious mind *knows* that it's not that bad and nothing to fear for, because it has experienced it and experiencing is knowing. If you tell yourself with your reasoning mind that 'it's not that bad', the subconscious mind will not be convinced, because it has previously experienced it in a different way.
Maybe before starting, it can be beneficial to do some breathing techniques to get into a relaxed feeling when you start to watch yourself..
First you need to think of the most recent event where you were suffering from SA pretty bad. Then visualise it and make it as real as possible, as if you were there watching yourself. (the effectiveness of the exercise is dependant for a great deal of how real you can make it) Also visualise the reactions of other people and your own.
Notice that's it's also you who is sitting here in a safe place, visualizing yourself having a 'bad SA trip', so it's not that you have to try to relive such a moment, only watch it.
From the moment you think you can't watch it because you think it's 'too horrendous', it means that you're not really looking at it. You may *think* that it's too horrible to watch, but if you catch such a thought, you need to realise that in fact you haven't really looked at yourself, because this is your JUDGEMENT/perception about the situation that causes the anxiety(and makes you anxious to look at it), not the symptoms of SA(trembling, blushing, stuttering,..) that you want to watch here. So forcing yourself a little to watch yourself may be necessary, because the subconscious mind is still associating the SA with horrible feelings, which is what you now are trying to alter by watching yourself from a safe place.
Our judgement about the SA symptoms('I don't want this', 'it's ridiculous', 'it's too embarrassing') is creating resistance and it is this resistance that causes the awful feelings. Because if you think about it, how could blushing for example make you feel embarrassed? Blushing is your face starting to get red, it's not the blushing that causes the embarassement.
So the purpose of this exercise is to change your thought about what you initially feared and alter your experience about it.
I remember I did this exercise once, and I could see myself and I felt FREE. Because once you watch yourself in that scenario feeling relaxed, your subconscious mind associates the SA symptoms with a new experience(of being at peace) and a new positive or neutral thought arises from that experience making it 'not that bad at all'. AT that point the subconsious mind *knows* that it's not that bad and nothing to fear for, because it has experienced it and experiencing is knowing. If you tell yourself with your reasoning mind that 'it's not that bad', the subconscious mind will not be convinced, because it has previously experienced it in a different way.
Maybe before starting, it can be beneficial to do some breathing techniques to get into a relaxed feeling when you start to watch yourself..
LittleMissMuffet
Well-known member
Hi Icecube,
No, I would never explain a theory like that to anyone other than someone who'd already bother needing to find one. So, no, I didn't explain it to anyone, it is just my way of understanding things and essentially all it is is just enabling me to operate in a more objective manner.
And, I suppose you're right to say that such an explanation is 'flabbergasting'. I do my best to be clear and objective, but I can't say that I've mastered it yet.
Here is a simpler explanation of what I mean...
Again it's the yin and yang -or as I prefer to call it -the Alpha and the Omega. Now, i believe that when a person is sufferring and struggling for balance that this is because life is somehow changing too quickly for the m to keep up with. I believe that the Alpha and Omega is the balance between two sides and that it is God and God is 'I am'. That a concept of two opposites is how we know who we are.
Only change comes along and what happens is that the form that this Alpha and Omega takes changes. It moves to a deeper level. ...and example is, imagine a person who believed strongly in monogamy nowadays; it is more likely that such a person would need to reinvent their definition for both who they are as well as their concept of 'relationship' in order to survive and exist as who they are in a world where values and definitions for 'relationship' are changing rapidly, and there is more emphasis on casual relationships. A person would need to accomodate for a greater range of types of 'relationship', and also develop a greater tolerance and acceptance for 'easy going' relationships, period. Otherwise, the pressure from the rapidly changing outer world will somehow or rather cause them unhappiness. ...basically, I'm talking about evolution of how we define ourselves etc.
There is always a new Alpha and Omega -a new 'I am'- based upon a new form for a set of opposites; ie: on how the world changes and we see ourseles changing in respect to it. In between when a person has a clear sense of who they are in this changed world, there is a lot of struggle to attain balance. The vicious circle is where the individual finds themself; and when they actually 'find themself' they see 'the circle' instead. Both sides to something as being in harmony with one another and these two sides, opposites, are defined on a deeper level.
Every once in a while, a person in a state of confusion (who is now experiencing the outside world changing too much for them) reaches a peak in their experience and they 'find a part of them that cannot change' that is irrespective of what is going on around them, just as it transcends and goes deeper than their -up to now- definition of what exists and who they are. A new Alpha and Omega is found. And this is akin to the basis of cognitive behavioural therapy, where the purpose is to change one's perception of what is real. But, going by the old idea of what is real, the old set of opposites, definition of self and world, God etc... ends up making a rift, a person finds they struggle to get free and that the more they try the worse their experience becomes. And feelings along with thoughts occur whereby a person becomes concerned with status, and likewise their survival, they cannot help but to some degree think in terms of 'my side' vs 'their side', and Alpha vs Omega, the strong vs the weak, good vs bad etc -and in reality, on this new level, there is no difference between two sides but it is difficult to think this way and to see it when a person is caught up in this emerging re-birth of self and is both emotionally and mind wise caught-up in a past definition of who they are.
And, having said all that, all my 'technique' is was too believe in this new definition of who I am -that one side exists by virtue of the other- that all is relative. And to believe in this and give-up my old way of defining my self, which simply makes me hold-on to 'my side' just in case of pain, and then when opposition comes along I suffer pain because I am unable to adapt to it; and I also find that one part of me thinks my self better whilst the other thinks my self worse. There just is difficulty really being balanced and having emotional integrity.
But all that i do is to allow my self to base who I am on this 'new definition'. I do it by believing that because all is relative, that if I base my self on this only, that everything will turn out how I need and want it to. So I believe in a small part of 'my side' being right and knowing that this is true for others, I focus on building tolerance/acceptance for a part of 'the other side' that is also always right, and through this I allow my self to become more flexible to different people, and to 'do for others what I would like done for me' ....since, life is unfair, until and unless you can see a deeper form for reality, one by which you can recognise how again two sides are equal. And by which you can see the fairness in this unfairness, being that everything moves and changes, and the more a person looks at life like this the easier life is for them -and they don not have to be so fooled by their emotions that in the moment may tell them that they are 'inferior' to others or even that they are 'superior' -which ends up being the same thing.
That's most of what I know and think. But I'm sure there is more complicated aspects at work that I still don't understand properly.
No, I would never explain a theory like that to anyone other than someone who'd already bother needing to find one. So, no, I didn't explain it to anyone, it is just my way of understanding things and essentially all it is is just enabling me to operate in a more objective manner.
And, I suppose you're right to say that such an explanation is 'flabbergasting'. I do my best to be clear and objective, but I can't say that I've mastered it yet.
Here is a simpler explanation of what I mean...
Again it's the yin and yang -or as I prefer to call it -the Alpha and the Omega. Now, i believe that when a person is sufferring and struggling for balance that this is because life is somehow changing too quickly for the m to keep up with. I believe that the Alpha and Omega is the balance between two sides and that it is God and God is 'I am'. That a concept of two opposites is how we know who we are.
Only change comes along and what happens is that the form that this Alpha and Omega takes changes. It moves to a deeper level. ...and example is, imagine a person who believed strongly in monogamy nowadays; it is more likely that such a person would need to reinvent their definition for both who they are as well as their concept of 'relationship' in order to survive and exist as who they are in a world where values and definitions for 'relationship' are changing rapidly, and there is more emphasis on casual relationships. A person would need to accomodate for a greater range of types of 'relationship', and also develop a greater tolerance and acceptance for 'easy going' relationships, period. Otherwise, the pressure from the rapidly changing outer world will somehow or rather cause them unhappiness. ...basically, I'm talking about evolution of how we define ourselves etc.
There is always a new Alpha and Omega -a new 'I am'- based upon a new form for a set of opposites; ie: on how the world changes and we see ourseles changing in respect to it. In between when a person has a clear sense of who they are in this changed world, there is a lot of struggle to attain balance. The vicious circle is where the individual finds themself; and when they actually 'find themself' they see 'the circle' instead. Both sides to something as being in harmony with one another and these two sides, opposites, are defined on a deeper level.
Every once in a while, a person in a state of confusion (who is now experiencing the outside world changing too much for them) reaches a peak in their experience and they 'find a part of them that cannot change' that is irrespective of what is going on around them, just as it transcends and goes deeper than their -up to now- definition of what exists and who they are. A new Alpha and Omega is found. And this is akin to the basis of cognitive behavioural therapy, where the purpose is to change one's perception of what is real. But, going by the old idea of what is real, the old set of opposites, definition of self and world, God etc... ends up making a rift, a person finds they struggle to get free and that the more they try the worse their experience becomes. And feelings along with thoughts occur whereby a person becomes concerned with status, and likewise their survival, they cannot help but to some degree think in terms of 'my side' vs 'their side', and Alpha vs Omega, the strong vs the weak, good vs bad etc -and in reality, on this new level, there is no difference between two sides but it is difficult to think this way and to see it when a person is caught up in this emerging re-birth of self and is both emotionally and mind wise caught-up in a past definition of who they are.
And, having said all that, all my 'technique' is was too believe in this new definition of who I am -that one side exists by virtue of the other- that all is relative. And to believe in this and give-up my old way of defining my self, which simply makes me hold-on to 'my side' just in case of pain, and then when opposition comes along I suffer pain because I am unable to adapt to it; and I also find that one part of me thinks my self better whilst the other thinks my self worse. There just is difficulty really being balanced and having emotional integrity.
But all that i do is to allow my self to base who I am on this 'new definition'. I do it by believing that because all is relative, that if I base my self on this only, that everything will turn out how I need and want it to. So I believe in a small part of 'my side' being right and knowing that this is true for others, I focus on building tolerance/acceptance for a part of 'the other side' that is also always right, and through this I allow my self to become more flexible to different people, and to 'do for others what I would like done for me' ....since, life is unfair, until and unless you can see a deeper form for reality, one by which you can recognise how again two sides are equal. And by which you can see the fairness in this unfairness, being that everything moves and changes, and the more a person looks at life like this the easier life is for them -and they don not have to be so fooled by their emotions that in the moment may tell them that they are 'inferior' to others or even that they are 'superior' -which ends up being the same thing.
That's most of what I know and think. But I'm sure there is more complicated aspects at work that I still don't understand properly.
iamantisocial
Well-known member
Physical
- diet
- exercise
- sleep
- try less exposure to computers
Psychological
- thinking about my pride my pride and my pride... I'm a warrior I'm a warrior I'm a warrior!!! Something like that. Drill that into your head. Say it to your brain every now and then.
- Watching brutal violent videos (try youtube.com and ogrish.com). At first it IS sickening but what it does... is it increases emotional pain tolerance. Dicatorships (I'm not sure... maybe US army and other non-dictator armies also do this) make soldiers to witness brutal shit... torture and all that. That is part of mind-conditioning... so that these soldiers wont freeze when they see blood and guts in battle.
How does that apply? Emotional pain tolerance makes you able to effectively deal with pressure and stress and other factors that contribute to depression and SP shit. Eventually, you wouldnt know when to cry and when to be "shocked" because your mind will be so fucking numb.
- Praying to God. This helps. Whether atheists call it the placebo effect... or maybe a "god" does exist... praying helps.
- diet
- exercise
- sleep
- try less exposure to computers
Psychological
- thinking about my pride my pride and my pride... I'm a warrior I'm a warrior I'm a warrior!!! Something like that. Drill that into your head. Say it to your brain every now and then.
- Watching brutal violent videos (try youtube.com and ogrish.com). At first it IS sickening but what it does... is it increases emotional pain tolerance. Dicatorships (I'm not sure... maybe US army and other non-dictator armies also do this) make soldiers to witness brutal shit... torture and all that. That is part of mind-conditioning... so that these soldiers wont freeze when they see blood and guts in battle.
How does that apply? Emotional pain tolerance makes you able to effectively deal with pressure and stress and other factors that contribute to depression and SP shit. Eventually, you wouldnt know when to cry and when to be "shocked" because your mind will be so fucking numb.
- Praying to God. This helps. Whether atheists call it the placebo effect... or maybe a "god" does exist... praying helps.
