.....Deadly negative sins....

[Davit]

....deadly negative sins....
My Catholic is coming out in me.

This could be in conjunction with Riders or any of the other information threads.

What are they. They are negative thoughts and attitudes that hinder progress because they muddy everything down stream. No matter how positive a thought is one of these can destroy it. Nothing passes through one of these without being changed.

Presumption: First because it is the most common and therefore the most deadly positive killer. Deadly because it echo's yourself or your thought.
Never presume and never speak out loud what you presume, stick to what you know is fact. You can not take back mistakes. Sorry only takes away some of the sting.

Worry: Next most common closely related to doubt which will be third.

Doubt: these two really do belong together, They are the biggest builders of Riders.

Exaggeration: Anything that strays from fact is negative.

Outright lies: These automatically go to Amygdala for consideration.

Avoidance: With no planned action you give the brain no alternative but to do what it did last time.

These are the biggies and the most effect on recovery. You can probably think of lots of little guys that fit somewhere in here. any one of these has the power to turn a whole days positive into negative.

[MyNameIsTerry]

Avoidance is a big one although it can appear subtle to people. If you back away from experiences that cause anxiety, you signal to your subconscious that it is right to do this. Under some circumstances this is fine, but not when it is about anxiety. If you have a disorder, it will build from things like this, if you have normal levels of anxiety you can choose to let it build and possibly become a problem or be annoyed and move on in which case its a lesser event.

What I find difficult though with avoidance is that in some cases it can be more damaging not to avoid. One example I have is in my work environment. If I had stayed, it would have just got much worse so I had to take time off - avoidance. The trouble with this is that if you don't work on your disorder throughout that period, your bubble shrinks and you don't realise that it will be even harder when you go back. I've been through this one.

Doubt is a big one for someone like me with OCD. Years ago it used to be called "the doubters disease". I've always seen it as a lack of self trust. You feel that you must make checks or mitigate because you cannot trust what you did whether it be a routine in memory or not.

Exaggeration is an obvious one. It fits very neatly into more than one Cognitive Distortion e.g. catastrophizing, maximising & minimising and even labelling to name a few.

Something that strikes me in modern society is how exaggeration has become a norm. For instance, people say "I'm dieing" or "I'm starving". There are examples that were around when I was a child and we used them because we pick them up off others. I wonder whether because we get used to using stronger negatives like this, whether we ultimately entrap ourselves in negative undercurrents that at the time we don't actually observe?

[Davit]

Getting trapped. Yes. Like in words, what do you have when your brain has two meanings for a word to choose from. When only emotion separates them, I'm dying figuratively, I'm dying literally. The beginning of HA???

---------- Post added at 21:56 ---------- Previous post was at 21:54 ----------

Was just thinking that in your case avoidance isn't, it is advancement. But you have to think that way to make it so. It was for me too. And often.

[MyNameIsTerry]

Yes, I think I've seen that more on HA threads but with the volume of them dominating NMP, it would be hard to say. I can't say its something I hear much on the OCD side. Maybe GAD, but it could be mixed in with out fears on there. Certainly on the Panic board, which makes sense with PA's.

That doesn't mean to suggest a difference in strength of character or alarmism though. Personally, I find the HA board more likely to be showing a spiralling chain of thought displaying catastrophizing but its seen everywhere, perhaps in different ways. I'm not sure why that is though. I guess there are a load of complexities to consider and so much will be individual.

---------- Post added at 06:02 ---------- Previous post was at 05:58 ----------


Was just thinking that in your case avoidance isn't, it is advancement. But you have to think that way to make it so. It was for me too. And often.

This might offer some insight into it, I guess:

http://psychology.tools/safety-behaviors-worksheet.html

The line between unhelpul safety behaviours and healthy adaptive behaviours - intention.

[Davit]

You must have one hell of a file.

---------- Post added at 22:28 ---------- Previous post was at 22:22 ----------

Amygdala has a whole memory full of intentions. One for each possible situation.

[MyNameIsTerry]

Just a good memory :D

One that I must admit to have my own struggles with is avoidance as mentioned above. In my decisions for work is was based not only on the struggle it would be to go back but also out of the desire for more than the crappy existence that I was ending up in.

So, whilst there wasn't a complete positive, maybe there wasn't a complete negative either? Based on what I've just said, it could be a rider.

Can a positive be a rider on a negative?

The subtle avoidance issue is problematic. Changing it to become a healthy adaptive behaviour is far from clear. I struggle with this one to be honest.

[Davit]

Yes. That is what challenge does if there is belief also.This is the only time neg and positive are one on one. A positive rider to a thought carries the thought past Amygdala and the negative thought becomes a neutral fact since it isn't used for direction. It goes into regular memory, not Amygdala's.

---------- Post added at 00:27 ---------- Previous post was at 00:12 ----------

If at the last minute doubt strips off the positive rider you have it hit Amygdala like a magnet. A negative rider now on a negative thought is pretty much a guarantee for panic if it is that kind of thought or OCD or HA if it id hat kind of thought. This is bad because it is twice as strong as it would have been if left alone. This is the out of the blue GAD which you can see isn't is it. The original negative thought is hid under the rider doubt so it looks like there is no reason for GAD when there is. This now puts GAD into the list of curable. Not so with OCD and HA because they have different direction in Amygdala's direction memory. Anxiety is easier to shut down because it deals with neg and pos only. with emotions deciding which one.

[MyNameIsTerry]

I don't think it was for me. It was a big decision as it meant throwing away an 11 yeear career in something I was good at. There were other negatives like how getting back into work at a new company could be harder and I wouldn't have the same support as my old one in returning. But there were also some positives in there like how I could get all the pressure of work off my back, sticking two fingers up to them for messing me around (and their faces we a picture when I passed them the envelope, they seemed to think I would keep on taking it!), the possibility of newness when I had got sick to death of my old life and how it never seemed to mean anything anymore. Things like that.

These weren't a quick event either, they were over a period of time. So, there would be fluctuations. So, I guess some would be positive with a negative dragging them down and vice versa.

[Davit]

At first when I learn something new there is some anxiety. It is amazing what the mind can do and what it can't but never is there a place where it won't. It seems that way some times but it is just the wrong instruction or lack of instruction.

[MyNameIsTerry]

I find change & uncertainty a big problem, like many with anxiety. Do it more often and you build the confidence and the positive starts to come in and overtake those negative riders.

I have found that mood is very important in this. If you can do it in a good mood state, positivity seems more natural and the negative riders don't even get a look in. Do it in a negative mood and its a minefield of negative thought patterns (Cognitive Distortions) and riders that you can't even see unless you have spent a lot of time learning how to spot & work with them. I'm pretty good with the distortions but the riders are still new to me.

When I was at my worst I was doing some Behavioural Activation which I learnt in Guided Self Help. I found this very hard at first. What I learned was that if I have a better day, try to add things in and cement them as new routines and then when my bad periods swiftly came back I would carry them on. I hated it all, like I hated every minute of the day but I didn't let them slip. This meant I pulled myself out of the worst stages by building routines and utilising my better mood states to pull me further forward bit by bit.

[MyNameIsTerry]

Presumption is another one that fits in with Cognitive Distortions, namely Jumping To Conclusions. This one will also link in with the exaggeration and the Cognitive Distortions that this is most connected to. Jumping To Conclusions has two subtypes; Mind Reading and Fortune-Telling. Both of these fit easily into presumption.

Even Filtering, Disqualifying The Positive and Emotional Reasoning could fit into a category like this when applied in a forward looking manner.

This is why these "CD's" are so powerful because they link to each other and build off each other too.

[blue moon]

For some reason I keep reading the topic as. Seven Deadly Sins.:D

[MyNameIsTerry]

For some reason I keep reading the topic as. Seven Deadly Sins.:D

Yeah, same here :D then I think about gluttony & get hungry followed by worrying about "gluten" (just kidding) :winks:

[blue moon]

I think about greed sitting here eating çhocolate and not sharing,shame on me.:D

[MyNameIsTerry]

Same here, with a sharing Aero block thats really not going to be shared...but I would offer you a piece if you were here too :D

[blue moon]

Sitting here lusting over some Turkish Delight,I suppose I could share with you.:D

[MyNameIsTerry]

What's his name? :roflmao:

I love TD, one of my favourites from childhood. The sugary ones without chocolate are nice too including the lemon ones.

[blue moon]

:roflmao:
My Wrath will come down upon you you cheeky boy:D. mmm I like the lemon TD also:yesyes: