Saturday, February 13, 2016

Pre-final Update on Misery.

Here’s some stuff to date because I am finishing with this. I will explain why in my next blog post…

Feb 11th
Mmm, a problem in dealing with grief, or depression, or anxiety, or any similar malady, is thinking too much about being miserable. Constantly having this on your mind drags you down. Been reading some on this sort of thing. Is it any wonder that some people spend so many years in analysis when they constantly spend time deconstructing their miseries?
I'm on an upswing tonight. I have to focus elsewhere, occupy my mind with other things beside being sad and miserable. This has been difficult for some days because grieving is so energy sapping. I must move. Walk tomorrow, and work. I hope.

Feb 12th
Ahhhh! Woke up without panics and feeling almost as good as I felt last night. I will run with this. Heart radio on. No overthinking. Walk a little later. Just keep moving. Maybe some writing, maybe some reading. Whatever feels good.

Over the last few months I've read through many self-help books. Many of these I've abandoned before finishing. The stuff in them ranged from 'no shit Sherlock' to overcomplicated psychobabble. I've read stuff on the internet too, tried hypnosis, all sorts of techniques for positivity, meditation and on. I've grasped what my problems have been: delayed grief resulting in anxiety, depression and panic attacks, the whole either compounded by or causing negative thinking. And now, as I get a handle on all that, with perfect timing, along comes Richard Carlson's book 'Stop Thinking, Start Living'. I've nearly finished it now and I know I will read it again and again. Seriously recommended.

1 comment:

Michael Davey said...

This is what I eventually did, I stopped wallowing in my pain (Chronic physical pain as well as occasional depression brought on by constant physical pain), put it out of my mind and got on with life. Most often what I do is 'thought stopping', I trained myself to recognize when I was getting into a thought loop or just a negative thought, and simply thought of something else. I find it helps to keep my mind busy, lots of hobbies or focusing on a single hobby. Reading, listening to music, books, watching TV.

The worst time is when I'm doing something that requires very little thinking, it's easy for the mind to wander to dark places. I tend to listen to podcasts, often upbeat or technical, or audio books.

My day to day philosophy is: If I have a problem I should look for solutions and make changes to fix the problem. If I can do something about it, no problem. If I can't do anything about it there is no sense in worrying about. Put it out of my mind and get on with what I need to do.

It's simplistic, but it does help most of the time.

Good luck