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9 years ago 0 +0 / -0 5

I drew out the 'thought triangle'. The 'distraction part' now makes sense...now I need to do the work!!

Thanks again!!

9 years ago 0 +0 / -0 6252

Normally people use distractions to stop anxiety by breaking the cycle. Like playing a different song to get one you don't want out of your head. If you go back to the fact we can only hold six thoughts at once, distractions work by crowding this ability so a thought has to be dropped. The more distractions or the more complex the more thoughts will be dropped. With luck it will be the anxious one. Some people can not eat in restaurants because the atmosphere uses their six thoughts and leaves no room for them to process eating unless they can block some of the atmosphere. So they do something unrelated to the atmosphere. Looking out window is the most common. It takes the focus away from the atmosphere and allows the function of eating to be one of the six thoughts. Like reading and eating. One person I know looks at the table and wipes his silverware because if he looks at you while trying to talk it crowds his six thoughts and he loses concentration. Yet if he uses this distraction he can converse very well. Some people can concentrate on eating and that will crowd out anxious thoughts. They don't know the mechanics of why this works they just do it because it works and most don't even know they do it. The stronger the distraction and the more positive it is the better it will drop a negative one. For example if you look out the window and think it is a nice day you will crowd out two thoughts and they will most likely be negative, or anxious ones because the distraction is positive and positive breeds positive. Some people use counting as a distraction because it is unrelated to most anxious thoughts

To show you how the six works. You can focus on a phone number as three sets of numbers 123 456 7890. Try to remember it as ten random numbers with breaks between and you can't. You can remember 1234567890 because it is a sequence and related so actually only one. Even counting to a hundred is still a sequence and only gets treated as one. But to count backwards you have to drop numbers after the first six to think the seventh. So if ten numbers are random as in a phone number or credit card number you can only remember the numbers if they are in groups.

Remember associated memory. This is what helps you remember things by associating them with something in common. This is why you can speed read by leaving out the small words like the, and, but, if etc. Your mind will put them in. Lk th sntnc wt n vwls. Like this sentence with no vowels. If you can read it then associated memory put them in for you. And if you can do that you can more than likely read backwards or even mirror images. Unfortunately the better you are at this the more likely you are to have anxiety. Just too much information if it isn't all positive.

Just more what I all the mechanics of why things work. I like to know why. It makes doing so much easier.

Davit.

9 years ago 0 +0 / -0 5

Great material...I will be reading this over a few times - drawing/understanding the 'thought triangle'...to get the visual 3 dimensional view...beginning to make sense

Not clear on the distraction part.

Thanks

9 years ago 0 +0 / -0 6252

For every negative there is a positive flip side. Often more than one. For every negative "what if" there is a positive "what if" to counter it. We are what we think.

Davit.

9 years ago 0 +0 / -0 6252

Ah, too much hurry, it was supposed to be Draw the triangle on paper.

There is a theory called seven plus or minus two that says a person can only deal with seven thoughts plus or minus two depending on ability at one time. It has been changed to five plus or minus one to more accurately cover all abilities.

Either way every new thought discards a previous thought. In those lets say six for an example will be seeing, hearing, feeling, tasting and thinking and anything else related with the survival control giving priority. In a noisy busy situation something important can be missed because of the priority to the noise or other thought that survival gives priority to. This isn't a bad thing if you use it to stop worry. If you keep adding distractions to those six thoughts something has to be discarded. With luck and practice it is worry.

All survival skills are negative and negative for that reason has priority unless discarded. This is conditioning of Episodic memory which controls neurotransmitters and decides through them what passes through the synapses into the brain to be processed. This is why concern rather than worry works. It conditions through repetition of Episodic memory to discard excess worry by giving a solution to the fear. And worry is fear, mostly fear of being wrong. The basis behind Hypochondria. A fear of missing something. This fear cycling round the triangle is why you can have a clean bill and not believe it. Sometimes placebo effect can work. This is taking something harmless to cure something you don't have as long as you think it works it stops the cycling.

Curing anxiety and panic or worry is all procedure. Doing things in the right order over and over to restructure your thinking called changing thought patterns. This is the cognitive part of CBT. Distractions and relaxation techniques are coping skills and the behavioural part of CBT. The two work together to cure. Which we refer to as recovery. Recovery is a return to normal or a building of normal if due to core beliefs it was never there. Very similar to brain washing but in a good way. Who you are doesn't change, how you think does.

Davit.

9 years ago 0 +0 / -0 6252

I can't post a diagram or I would post the thought triangle. It works like this. First you have to know that all thought and action passes through memory first before it becomes a solution or reaction. When you do anything, be it look, ask, or feel (first corner) it passes through a survival control to see if it is dangerous. You don't notice this or feel it unless it is. A lot of thoughts are discarded here as unimportant such as peripheral vision and traffic noise. Those that do get through go to Episodic memory for instruction. Episodic memory is where past experience and emotions re stored and it gives you the appropriate solution to the query. This gets passed on to Procedural memory for an action. (third corner of the triangle. Between the second and third corner you can change your thought or reaction based on stored information, new or old. What ever the thought, solution or action it cycles back to the other two corners. To the first to stimulate the next query. To Episodic memory, the second corner as an update. and the whole process starts over again.

Millions of these happen every second without our input or feeling them, unless Episodic memory doesn't have an answer, then it uses Semantic memory ( associated) to make a guess. With worry the answer or solution is not satisfactory so it cycles round and round between the second and third corner till it finds one or some more powerful question stops it. Often with no satisfactory update in Episodic memory for next time. and a potential to stimulate the first corner to revisit the worry.

Worry has a choice, no answer or too many answers. Change worry to concern. Concern has one answer only even if it is wrong. Concern doesn't cycle because there is a solution and an update for Episodic memory. If the solution proves to be wrong then it can be changed next time the question comes up.

So next time you start to worry change it to concern and give it one answer and only one answer and drop it. Even if you have to move on to another concern to do this. And there will be another concern since worry is all about fear and that survival control will give you one of the ones it normally discards. This by the way is called distraction, this adding another concern. Try to use a pleasant distraction. Keep it positive.

Going to post this so I don't lose it. Raw the triangle on paper and it makes more sense. It is on the internet but not always accurate.

Davit

9 years ago 0 +0 / -0 5

I enjoyed the article on memory...had to/still reading it over lot of technical info to get through in one read.

Working on and trying to get through the home exercises and have a question with regards to Worry...is it a feeling (automatic) or is it a behaviour (control)? Is it a form of rumination?

I'm seeing the surge or unexplained anxiety (1st fear) as the trigger and the other triggers that branch off -the 2nd fear or apprehension (worry). Most of these are in the "what if?'..I guess I worry excessivley because I've always been a problem solver I see problems as always having a solution..which I know at one level can't always be true. I guess I'm just conditioned (core beliefs) to think this way and find this part the most challenging...I need to change.

Health worries, eventhough told by the professional nothing physically wrong...try to use positive thinking but part of me questions it this process because I though positive thinking doesn't work or maybe its just my interpretation or the way I'm using the technique...Do I just need to accept the uncertaintly that I might have a serious problem (sounds a bit confusing)?

Tips or suggestions are always welcome...

9 years ago 0 +0 / -0 6252

Hi.

A lot of what we see as anxiety now was in fact necessity and a big part of our ancestors life. We come from a hunter gatherer society and a social one for safety. Being aware of our surroundings was a necessity. Some people now can use those skills to get rid of anxiety. Some can shut them off as soon as they are in perceived safe places. An office instead of up a tree, in a car instead of on a horse. in our homes. Everyone has safe harbours. None of this helps if we can not shut off the processing. We have seen the effects of men in a war, traffic controllers and truck drivers. When I drove heavy equipment it would be hours before I could get the motion out of my head. When I was a faller I would drive home and every tree I looked at I checked for lean and weight and it's neighbours. In fact not seeing a tree but it's possibility. I was a very good equipment operator and faller because I see three dimensionally. I didn't know that everyone doesn't do that. It means I have more information in semantic (associated) memory and can access it faster. The connection between it and episodic memory is closer.

If you put a box on a table and look at it and you know what all six sides look like so you can actually see it from any side in your mind, If you look at a flower and you can see the back side of it, if you can see what the inside of your garage looks like while looking at the outside then you see things the way I do. It is a gift that is not a gift in todays world. It is in fact a cause for anxiety. There is too much happening around us to be able to handle the added load. I have fantastic problem solving skills and a very vivid imagination and I dream in colour. You can imagine what this did to me in a panic attack. Almost all my pictures of trains are black and white so when I would wake in a panic dreaming I was in the cold firebox of locomotive it would be shades of grey instead of colour. This got me looking into memory and what it's role was in panic. And that gave me a lot of answers.

It is more complicated as you add in neurotransmitters and the connections from different parts of the brain. But it all started to make sense and now I had the why of why CBT works.

Davit.

PS I have a friend who sees three dimensionally but his wife sees in two. He has a hard time describing things to her because she can not see what he does.

9 years ago 0 +0 / -0 5

Thanks Davit.

I just printed it and will be reading it.

BTW...I like your approach in the discussions.

9 years ago 0 +0 / -0 6252

I just realized there are two threads on memory The technical one is under the topic success stories called just babbling about memory. Start at the bottom if you are interested.

Davit

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