- Date posted
- 50w
Our brains
I just listened to something that said our brains aren't wired for success, it's wired for survival. That's why we get stuck in these patterns of behaviour. Makes sense but never thought of it that way.
I just listened to something that said our brains aren't wired for success, it's wired for survival. That's why we get stuck in these patterns of behaviour. Makes sense but never thought of it that way.
But survival could be success in itself. The fact that you made it (survived), despite all the challenges so far, says that you succeeded. Basically, it depends on how you define success.
OK I got ocd because of trauma. Making it through that was a success but now it's holding me back. Its wired for survival to make sure the same thing doesn't happen but its overwhelming me. So for me, and how a lot others would frame would be a failure of instinct. Recovery is counterintuitive. You make good points but there are certain things with the way ocd is trying to protect me that will make my life considerably worse. To me that's not success. Just because a hammer worked once, doesn't mean everything in life requires it
@Wolfram - Hello there. Understanding OCD is key. I have a theory that frames it as a survival mechanism. I may have mentioned this before, but here it is again. The human brain has limited capacity for storing memories. Periodically, it employs a process akin to a computer's "Garbage Collection," identifying old or irrelevant memories and presenting them for review to determine if they can be safely discarded. While non-OCD individuals can easily dismiss these memories, those with OCD become indecisive. As the brain urgently seeks to recycle these areas, it repeatedly presents these memories, causing discomfort akin to the pain experienced when something is wrong with our body. This cycle perpetuates itself. From this perspective, OCD is a survival mechanism disrupted by a malfunction.
@hanysm@gmail.com You've said the same thing before. With your ocd, how is theory helping you? Has it helped you in your recovery journey?
@Wolfram - I'm not someone with OCD, but my son is. Watching him suffer and struggle to articulate his experiences is the main reason I'm here. I'm eager to learn from all of you about your experiences and journeys to better understand this challenging disorder. I also hope to help if I can. I see my son reflected in each of your stories, and it breaks my heart. I'm not sure how my theory will help, but it certainly explains why Exposure and Response Prevention (ERP) therapy is so effective.
@hanysm@gmail.com Ah that makes sense. Sorry your son is going through it. I'd suggest looking up videos on ironic process theory and the white bear experiment. It is similar to your theory but explains intrusive thoughts and how the brain works. The longer we don't deal with it properly, the more than brain sees it as a threat and the deeper the neural pathways for the habitual/instinctual behaviours burrow into our brains. I'm happy to hear you're looking out for your son and not waiting for it to progress. Getting better with ocd is completely counter intuitive and stressful. I see it as a degenerative brain disorder if we don't deal with it the correct way. From someone who had it undiagnosed for 27 years I can say I wouldn't wish it on the worst person in the world. It's awful to go through. The way I see ocd is you get a trigger then your brain presents a proxy problem and a proxy solution. Reading between the lines and finding out what the real issue and solution is the key but when your body is pumping you full of the fear hormone at the same level as coming face to face with a lion or chucked out of a plane, its hard to rationalise and do that. It'll keep pumping that hormone because the brain doesn't know the difference between a real or perceived threat.it won't stop until you give into a compulsion or push through with erp. Best thing to do is erp and manage stressor as best as you can when calm.
@hanysm@gmail.com I'm praying you see this response π you were right with your theory and I'm almost certain I can prove it. We need to do a questionnaire /study. You're a genius. π
@Wolfram - Your prayers were accepted @Wolfram and I saw your response. Let me know how can I help.
@hanysm@gmail.com I believe a lot of ocd is down to a certain brain receptor that bridges cortisol to other receptors. It's also why ocd is much higher in women in men. I'll let you look into the rest.
https://youtu.be/dltL0mL_2wc?feature=shared It's tied into a lot of beliefs, religions and philosophies. Same thing different wording/ languages modes etc. If you watch it, don't get too caught up on any fancy words or terminologies, just translate it to whatever you're comfortable with. It's a small glimpse into what is waiting for you beyond ocd. It's hard to get to this stage once you've accidentally fell into the anxiety / fear trap of thoughts and misinterpretations of the body's signals. Whether the cause was accidental, incidental or intentional, they are inconsequential to the solution ultimately. It does take work to undo it, inner work and unconditional love for yourself. You can change your reality. Your story is not over yet, it is still being written.
I feel like after years of living in survival mode from various back to back traumas, I donβt know how to turn off my brain. Itβs always in some sort of overstimulated cycle of overthinking, rumination, self checking, and seeking reassurance. I know there will be more peace after treatment. But just hating like Iβm stuck in always feeling like Iβm waiting for the next shoe to drop when so many shit things have happened to me early in life. How am I suppose to be excited about whatβs next?
So... I understand my anxiety but not OCD. I understand both but not in "my born this way world." I have done a lifetime of teaching myself I'm weird, goofy and different from the average accepted societal person. Why: because I've been teased and bullied all my life for not fitting the script. I have chose to be a survivor and not a victim because be a victim SUCKS! to me. Its a black hole that your cant alwaus climb out of, it leaves you dependant on someone happening by and someone that has a caring soul. In my world you're F'd if you wait for the latter version. So I mentally wired my brain to love me, accept those differences and pat yourself on the back for it. I learned to celebrate it and be happy with it. I nutired it and made it the beast that it is today. So if I truly have OCD, I literally, intentionally and purposely created it wishing me unknowing that it was not good. So, after all these years, the Corporate world says No. We do not have to allow this? I have never known it to harm or hurt anyone. So it's difficult to connect the problem? Anyhow, now I have learn, redefine and understand ME from a entirely new perspective. And that is my initial struggle, the other struggles, the other stuff, I have being dealing with and its nothing new to me. Buy telling self that it's a mis-fire is strange and hard for me to accept? It confuses me still. I have always seen OCD as a autistic behavior. I did not then and still do not perceive autism as a mis-fire or something wrong or unacceptable? Still this pwrplex me. When in school I studied mental health and deep dived. I enjoyed it, learning it. I guess I don't view mental health as psychotic or crazy. Maybe because I grew up in a home of an X military father who had flash backs a lot and we just played the parts until it wasn't fun anymore and my older siblings and mother got tired of dealing with it. I never felt afraid or threaten, just accept that is how he was. Every now and then he would start playing out a experience. I am a curious individual so I thought it was quite interesting to know what happened. Otherwise, he sit quiet all dad, like no one else was there and chain smoke one cigarette after the other. I remember my mom complaining that his cigarette then next his cartoon of cigarettes cost as must as the food they had to keep in the house. I thought it was an exaggeration until I good older and understood it from an adult point of view. I think when it first click, I was outside play tag. hide and seek or something. Me and a another girl run under the window he usually sits at to low smoke out of. We run through all pile of cigarette butts and she said, "dang, where did all these cigarette buds come from, it's like a gigantic ashtray. In that moment, I didn't know. But when I looked up I realized that was my dad's window. I think that was the first time I realized how much he was smoking and why my mom had said that years ago. Anueay, I do understanding the behavior of a persistent, uncontrolled behavior that does not cause a resolve but instead increases the non-productive obsession that you're reacting to which creates the necessity of a compulsion help you deal, cope, or adapt in a way you can tolerate it. This increases the stress responds, the anxieties and/or flight or flight chemicals that are being produced. We react mentally and order to feel "ok," we have developed something that make us feel safe, better, or accepting of whatever our minds are telling us that is wrong, cannot do, or adding shit that is not necessarily true. Hear, if I have intrusive thoughts most of the time they are true. I go into a response of anger, then protection. Then the replay keeps me stuck because i have been forced outside of my safw zone or my protection has being tampered with of something that makes me feel feel the andrinaline is neex becauseI about to go to battle by all means necessary. I think that is how it is happening for me. Anything else is not connecting? My broken trust bonds => morphed into F it just don't trist nobody. There is no benefit of doubt. Let them prove they can be trusted until they can not. But... ? I say what is wrong with that? It has always washed away the BS people that I don't want to be bothered by. That works for me???... Yes, of course, when I was young trust issues did interfere with things that it should not have. But I have learned to reconcile that with observation and analyzing my environment and the action of one's words versus their behavior. And now at my age today, IJDG2Fs if I can't trust you or not because I only deal with people as associates and it doesn't matter anymore. Now this pattern of thinking and believing may be all wrong but I have lived life my entire life in survival mode some say. And that adrenaline that is full in me, I have conclude, is my lifeline, my saving grace and why I have never been able to reduce the heighten response in me. I think, still learning... TBC But I'm open, I am here, and trying to rewire this "new" beast that is my bestfriend. When that Counselor helped me to understand that my intenssity of surviving has created this flight of fight heighten energy = anxiety. I had never viewed it to be the problem yet instead my personal instinctive ALARM. A protective system. This is throwing me off. Really off. Then there are some that keeps telling me anxiety is my fearing... what? No. I have literally not feared much of anything. A man once said to me, that I had a God complex. I said, No, Sir. I do not believe I am better or above anyone. I'm sorry that my confidence in my own self makes you feel uncomfortable. My cheerleader- motivation toward self has nothing to do with you persinally or any other person. Its what I do to keep pushing and NOYB. It's for me only. Please stop inserting yourself, I am not responsible for how you feel when I use my motivated confidence to get through shit. Please excuse yourself from my chapters. Anyway... Why do I say this. My protective energy... because I grew up rough, I've learned to protect self. I know I said I believe in a Higher Power, but when you are young, and about without parents. You tend to say to yourself, Well God ain't here, so what are you going to do? You can't wait for that pie to fall from the sky or you will die. Are you ready to die? And of course, I'd say to myself, "Not today." So, you then use that fight or flight as your strength to help save yourself, adapt and do shit yourself. No disrepect. Whatever it takes until that Higher Power say you're fine now. Relax. Vicious i was, I learned to hard way. And don't regret it. π€·π½ββοΈ I guess I'm here to learn how to be delicate and soft. He'll idk. Night, Nighy. Psss ... I had something else to say but it went in another direction. OCD ... ADHD ... π€·π½ββοΈ
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