My Brain is a Weapon of Mass Self-Destruction. Is Yours?

Can yours?

My brain can get into a mode where it won’t “shut off,” with thoughts racing for hours on end.

Can yours?

My brain can start attacking me with unwarranted shame, guilt, and vicious attacks on who I am, hurling that vitriol at me for hours.

Can yours?

My brain can obsess (seemingly) endlessly, ruminating over minutiae, an unimportant detail (i.e. did I turn that light off?) for hours.

Can yours?

When I am not spiritually and mentally fit, my brain morphs into a savage, relentless, sadistic psychological torturer with no mercy.

Does yours?

If you have from Bipolar Disorder, Obsessive Compulsive Disorder, an Anxiety Disorder, or another mood disorder, these forms of self torture and suffering are almost inevitable.

Robin Flanigan wrote in an article in Bipolar Hope:

A HAMSTER WHEEL

Having intrusive thoughts, images and impulses appears to be a nearly universal constant of the human condition. Concordia University and 15 other universities worldwide found that a whopping 94 percent of people experience them in some form at some time, according to research published in the Journal of Obsessive-Compulsive and Related Disorders in 2014.

The problem comes when they do more than intrude—they won’t go away. In the absence of evasive measures, the invaders take control and start to keep you awake at night, disturb your focus during the day, and direct your behavior into counterproductive channels.

Obsessive thinking is like a hamster wheel in the brain, with different animals parading in and out over time, according to psychologist Bruce Hubbard, PhD, president of the New York City Cognitive Behavior Therapy Association and a visiting scholar at Columbia University Teacher’s College.

“People with bipolar disorder often report that there’s an obsession of the day or the week, and as one problem gets resolved, it can easily be replaced by another problem,” Hubbard says.

“There’s something in the brain that needs to ruminate and worry and obsess about different topics. It could be a real problem or a completely irrational problem—it almost doesn’t matter what the topic is.”

But we don’t have to remain prey or victim to our own brains.

Check out these links for a number of techniques and methods for “stilling an unquiet mind.” And by all means, don’t hesitate to seek the help of a professional, a support group, and/or medication.

https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/two-minute-shrink/201006/taming-obsessive-thoughts

https://adaa.org/learn-from-us/from-the-experts/blog-posts/consumer/how-take-power-back-intrusive-thought-ocd

http://beyondaffairs.com/affair-recovery/strategies-to-combat-obsessive-thoughts/

http://www.anxietycoach.com/overcome-ocd.html