Constantly Under Attack

[Cognisant]

Whether I'm working, walking down the street, sitting at home or whatever I often have these wayward thoughts attacking me, for example I may remember some time I said something embarrassing (which could be years ago) in a context that has nothing to do with it, the thought just happens and I have to consciously repress it, I'll be by myself and telling myself to shut up or fuck off because my mind has stumbled upon a landmine of insecurity, the majority of which are completely irrelevant/irrational.

What is that?

Whatever it is it's frustrating, it's kind of like if someone came up to you and said "don't think of elephants" well of course you immediately think of an elephant, but instead of elephants it's like "remember that lame joke you told three years ago that nobody laughed at?" or "those people you were talking to yesterday didn't really seem into it, maybe you were just annoying them and they were too polite to show it?", which is bullshit, there's too many contradictory facts for me to believe it, but that dosen't stop these attacks coming and the daily whack-a-mole tires me.

Best I can figure the left and right hemispheres of my brain want to kill each other.

 

[Wsye]

I get these too.

It's like a small, intense but brief outburst of strong social anxiety about specific events in the near or far past, and it goes as it comes.
I don't have any theory to explain it though.
But indeed, it could have something to do with right and left hemispheres. As it comes very suddenly without apparent reason, maybe it could be due to a few specific right sides circuits activated by a bigger charge on the left side. That would explain the forced taste of these thoughts and their apparent lack of logical origin.

But I am just drifting on the hypothetical stuff, here..

 

[Montresor]

I get like that too; where I suddenly remember some way I acted in the past or something I did and I actually catch myself grimacing in real time, or otherwise saying something from a third person perspective, to myself, about what I did wrong or how the situation could have played out better.

There are few recurring examples and some come and go, and there's times I can't even tell if they're imaginary or real. I sort of look at these moments in time as a collection of events that add depth and complexity to your inner morals.

I get really sort of shadowy, dark feelings when I do this.

This might be seemingly unrelated but do either of you find you partake in "spellcasting" or any other kinds of superstitious habits that you just can not break?

 

[DelusiveNinja]

I have the same problem as you and I am forming a theory wanna hear what I have so far?
"Left-handed people can deal with more incoming information that doesn't come in an organized way." - Dr. Oz
"The left brain normally controls your right side, which is really powerful,"- Dr. Oz

Which hemisphere do you think you prefer? Are you right handed preferring to use left brain functions or left handed (ambidextrous) using all functions equally? Right handed people, supposedly, use their left hemisphere (Ti & Si) to control the right hemisphere (Fe & Ne).

If you are right handed and the left hemisphere (Ti & Si) is in control of the right hemisphere (Ne & Fe), I would think that these type of thoughts would be normal because Si is tempting you to mull over past events and experiences, while Ne is telling you move forward in to the future possibilities. Ti is trying to keep everything stable, while Fe may want to make those bottled up emotions come out. Makes sense to me.

Information derived from these places:
Jill Bolte Taylor's stroke of insight | Video on TED.com
http://infpverse.freeforums.org/brain-lateralisation-and-the-cognitive-functions-t804.html
http://www.personalitypathways.com/thomson/type2.html
http://www.oprah.com/health/Dr-Oz-Answers-Burning-Medical-Questions/15#ixzz2aGsrQxxB

 

[Duxwing]

I used to often have thoughts like this: I accept the thought, feel the emotion, and understand that it is irrational as the feeling subsides.

-Duxwing

 

[Spirit]

I get like that too; where I suddenly remember some way I acted in the past or something I did and I actually catch myself grimacing in real time, or otherwise saying something from a third person perspective, to myself, about what I did wrong or how the situation could have played out better.

WTF? This happen to me just last night.

 

[DelusiveNinja]

I'm not saying ambidextrous people don't experience these thoughts but they may have more control over it. For example, I would only let my emotions out when I know I am alone and no one can find me thinking irrationally. I've heard people say they would go to bed crying because of these thoughts.

I used to often have thoughts like this: I accept the thought, feel the emotion, and understand that it is irrational as the feeling subsides.

-Duxwing

Duxwing is right though all you can do is accept it and let it out (if letting it out is necessary that is). You may need to go in a restroom and scream, "F*CK!!! Why did I do that?", while looking in a mirror.

 

[DelusiveNinja]

Another way to let this emotional tension out is through creating music, writing, or exercising, but if I were you I would video tape myself screaming in the restroom.

 

[Montresor]

WTF? This happen to me just last night.

Would you call these experiences "unpleasant"?

Generally they bring about rushes of guilt and shame/adrenaline.

It's like @Duxwing said ... must remind that they are irrational and able to be suppressed.

 

[Spirit]

yes, unpleasant and physically I felt a shutter at the thought.

 

[Lot]

What is that?

Post Event Ruminations.
http://lmgtfy.com/?q=post+event+ruminations

I'm right there with you. I've dealt with it most of my life. Tobacco and SRI's seem to do the trick at getting rid of them, for me. Which means it probably has something to do with your serotonin or dopamine being low. Complete conjecture So if you are in an environment that doesn't provide negative stimulus, your mind tries to find some to match your chemistry. I ain't no expert, but it makes sense on the surface level.

 

[Duxwing]

Would you call these experiences "unpleasant"?

Generally they bring about rushes of guilt and shame/adrenaline.

It's like @Duxwing said ... must remind that they are irrational and able to be suppressed.

Suppressing the unpleasant memories only forestalls the release of their tension.

-Duxwing

 

[John_Mann]

Whether I'm working, walking down the street, sitting at home or whatever I often have these wayward thoughts attacking me, for example I may remember some time I said something embarrassing (which could be years ago) in a context that has nothing to do with it, the thought just happens and I have to consciously repress it, I'll be by myself and telling myself to shut up or fuck off because my mind has stumbled upon a landmine of insecurity, the majority of which are completely irrelevant/irrational.

What is that?

Extroverted intuition, pleased to meet you.

 

[Cherry Cola]

You can absolutely not attribute that to Ne, almost everyone have these thoughts to some degree.

What Montresor described is a lil more specific. If your gonna attribute to functions its the ne/si combo doin it there. Ne applying new wisdom so that old scenarios appear in another light. But that's pretty flimsy reasoning anyway, everyone does it to some degree. And btw Monty its a sign of personal growth so it aint all bad :P

I do them grimaces too!

 

[ApostateAbe]

Whether I'm working, walking down the street, sitting at home or whatever I often have these wayward thoughts attacking me, for example I may remember some time I said something embarrassing (which could be years ago) in a context that has nothing to do with it, the thought just happens and I have to consciously repress it, I'll be by myself and telling myself to shut up or fuck off because my mind has stumbled upon a landmine of insecurity, the majority of which are completely irrelevant/irrational.

What is that?

Whatever it is it's frustrating, it's kind of like if someone came up to you and said "don't think of elephants" well of course you immediately think of an elephant, but instead of elephants it's like "remember that lame joke you told three years ago that nobody laughed at?" or "those people you were talking to yesterday didn't really seem into it, maybe you were just annoying them and they were too polite to show it?", which is bullshit, there's too many contradictory facts for me to believe it, but that dosen't stop these attacks coming and the daily whack-a-mole tires me.

Best I can figure the left and right hemispheres of my brain want to kill each other.

I know exactly what you mean. I had that pattern of thought all of my life, until recently, and it nearly drove me crazy, have flashbacks for no reason to things I said wrong or things I did wrong. It would trigger depressive fits. It went away within the past year, and I am not sure why, except maybe I became a person with more to be proud of.

 

[Cognisant]

I do them grimaces too!

Ditto.

I think Lot' brain chemistry theory has merit, maybe I need to get back on the vitamin D pills.

 

[SpaceYeti]

I can't claim I get depressed from them, but I can certainly think of things I did wrong or in otherwise embarrassingly awkward ways, and it still embarrasses me today, or I at least feel like I should have just plain done better. In my other thread where I mentioned passing the board, for example, I did. I passed the board. Yet, every time I think about it, I remembering doing so much stuff wrong. Frankly, I'm curious how I passed. Were the First Sergeants impressed by my GT score, like everyone won't shut up about, and passed me even though I sucked? Were they impressed by my NCO Creed, even though I stumbled over it in one place? How about how the chair was angled slightly, like someone had hit it with their foot on the way out, and I didn't correct it's angle until I was told I could? Oh, also, I admitted that one of my answers was wrong. That's, like, Bnumber2 thing to not do at the board! I stumbled over someone's appropriate title once or twice, I took some time in answering some questions, I said I wanted a "Major" instead of a "Master's Degree", I outright fucked myself. When the Sergeant Major asked me how I did, I almost told him I felt like I sucked dick, but I lied and said I thought I did okay. And he told me I was promotable. Even though my goal was accomplished, I'm still beating myself up over all those stupid mistakes that someone more detail oriented would have never done.

I still beat myself up over things I did (and didn't do) in high-school, too. A lot of it has to do with girls, but there's also just awkward things I did. I can't think of any examples right now because I'm still so upset over my piss-poor performance at the board to think about all the other stuff I regret. My point stands, though. My mistakes haunt me. I can only imagine if I ever made any serious mistakes!

 

[Pyropyro]

Whether I'm working, walking down the street, sitting at home or whatever I often have these wayward thoughts attacking me, for example I may remember some time I said something embarrassing (which could be years ago) in a context that has nothing to do with it, the thought just happens and I have to consciously repress it, I'll be by myself and telling myself to shut up or fuck off because my mind has stumbled upon a landmine of insecurity, the majority of which are completely irrelevant/irrational.

What is that?

Whatever it is it's frustrating, it's kind of like if someone came up to you and said "don't think of elephants" well of course you immediately think of an elephant, but instead of elephants it's like "remember that lame joke you told three years ago that nobody laughed at?" or "those people you were talking to yesterday didn't really seem into it, maybe you were just annoying them and they were too polite to show it?", which is bullshit, there's too many contradictory facts for me to believe it, but that dosen't stop these attacks coming and the daily whack-a-mole tires me.

Best I can figure the left and right hemispheres of my brain want to kill each other.

It seems that making these bad memories (for lack of a better term) can only be temporarily banished by yelling at yourself. I'm trying a different approach that I found in a book. I just experience the thought as if I'm watching a film. I know the feelings are real but the data there is static and cannot harm anymore, just like a film. Sure there are emotions involved but doing it again and again makes the emotions weaker.

The brain is indeed a tricky thing.

 

[cheese]

Tobacco and SRI's seem to do the trick at getting rid of them, for me. Which means it probably has something to do with your serotonin or dopamine being low. Complete conjecture So if you are in an environment that doesn't provide negative stimulus, your mind tries to find some to match your chemistry. I ain't no expert, but it makes sense on the surface level.

This is really interesting. Fits in with depression too, where the patient (especially if in denial) will start blaming everything in the environment and demanding a complete change of scenery because they believe those are the only possible reasons they could feel that way. In those cases, their brain represses good memories and negatively interprets everything that happens/only remembers bad things. Can lead to severing all close ties (more superficial relationships don't suffer as much because they're reasoned to be too weak to cause this level of negative impact).

When I was a kid, I thought about how certain moods seem to overtake me, and how I seem compelled to feed them and keep them going. I reached the same conclusion that you did - that the moods 'pre-exist' and we try to explain them away with causal relationships. But perhaps some people are just naturally melancholy and we should do away with the idea of cause altogether. I didn't consider the serotonin/dopamine angle though. That's interesting. And of course, depression theories operate on these lines as well.

Mood memes! They force you to help them reproduce!

 

[Beat Mango]

Cognitive disinhibition

 

[Architect]

Common problem. Everybody seems to have this inner voice, and in my experience it's a habit rather than something built in. The reason for this is as a musician you have to learn to manage that voice. Imagine playing a solo and the voice speaking in your ear "you suck, you just blew that grace note". You'd flub from there.

Back in my day we had these "inner game" books, The Inner Game of Tennis etc which described this voice. I think the protocol for dealing with it was to just learn a new habit of not using the voice. Instead the inner voice is quiet, or musing on something going on in your life.

Since I learned this habit a long time ago and still reinforce it as a practicing musician I don't have issues with the negative inner voice. I think Jungian shrinks call it the "inner animus".

 

[redbaron]

Common problem. Everybody seems to have this inner voice, and in my experience it's a habit rather than something built in. The reason for this is as a musician you have to learn to manage that voice. Imagine playing a solo and the voice speaking in your ear "you suck, you just blew that grace note". You'd flub from there.

Back in my day we had these "inner game" books, The Inner Game of Tennis etc which described this voice. I think the protocol for dealing with it was to just learn a new habit of not using the voice. Instead the inner voice is quiet, or musing on something going on in your life.

Since I learned this habit a long time ago and still reinforce it as a practicing musician I don't have issues with the negative inner voice. I think Jungian shrinks call it the "inner animus".

Thank you for this post. I was finding it impossible to explain how I had experienced these before, yet they stopped years ago. I've been a musician since I was little, and I came to much the same conclusion when I started hanging around studios with my dad, conversing with and playing with other musicians.

I really hadn't identified this link though, so that was quite interesting to read.

I think that it's somewhat important for INTP's people to channel their emotions into something...I think that part of our psyche is too easily neglected. I know that when I'm not in an intimate relationship, I frequently have the urge to play music, yet when I'm in a close relationship the urge seems to surface less.

Which leads me to believe that this could be related to life imbalances.

 

[Architect]

I think that it's somewhat important for INTP's people to channel their emotions into something...I think that part of our psyche is too easily neglected. I know that when I'm not in an intimate relationship, I frequently have the urge to play music, yet when I'm in a close relationship the urge seems to surface less.

Like all people we tend to ignore our inferiors, even when its 'integrated'. That's what being the inferior means, it is largely unconscious and so ignored. I generally find that if I don't engage in music once a day by playing or listening then emotional pressure builds up in my head.

 

[Polaris]

Like all people we tend to ignore our inferiors, even when its 'integrated'. That's what being the inferior means, it is largely unconscious and so ignored. I generally find that if I don't engage in music once a day by playing or listening then emotional pressure builds up in my head.

This is so true....

*turns on music*

I do this a lot...I think I have to start painting or doing photography again, lest I go insane. All I do is study, work...and procrastinate.

The thing about music is that it has to somehow stir emotion, otherwise I don't seem to get the 'release'. Listening to background music all day, although pleasant enough, does nothing for the emotional side of me. I have to be actively listening for it to have a noticeable effect.

I notice if I'm irritated or stressed, and then talk to someone I can connect with also bring about that release. There is someone I can indulge in these analytical sessions with, for hours at the time...and it is not draining at all; in fact I feel highly energised and light-headed afterwards. Take today, for example; I have been angry and stressed with a migraine slowly taking hold of me. I just happened to have a conversation with this person and we immediately engaged on this deeper analytical level, bouncing ideas off each other.

My headache is gone and I feel happy and relaxed...it is as if all my worries just vanished

I have also learned to disengage my compulsive thinking. I have to be very conscious in order to reach this state, but when I can be bothered I can manage to disengage thinking for up to one hour at the time. The result is a clear mind and new solutions to problems seemingly appearing out of nowhere. I used to get the same clarity of mind when practicing an instrument; I was better able to solve mathematical problems for example, while playing the violin on a regular basis. Perhaps it was the combination of simultaneous activation of left/right brain hemispheres plus the suspension of active thinking for hours at the time...it seemed to stimulate creative faculties as well as 'freeing up' brain space for more focused thinking.

Writing also helps.

 

[Jennywocky]

The music thing? It's funny people are talking about it.

I needed to get up at 5:30am today, but last night I was digging through old CDs and transferring them over to my iPod at 2am... and then lay in bed another good 30 minutes just listening to songs I hadn't listened to for years and feeling swept away. I was exhausted, but it felt good.

And I needed that kind of release, after living in my head for too long again. It's so easy to turn off all the emotional and sensory stuff and live like a brain in a box.

 

[Architect]

This is so true....

*turns on music*

I do this a lot...I think I have to start painting or doing photography again, lest I go insane. All I do is study, work...and procrastinate.

The thing about music is that it has to somehow stir emotion, otherwise I don't seem to get the 'release'. Listening to background music all day, although pleasant enough, does nothing for the emotional side of me. I have to be actively listening for it to have a noticeable effect. ...

My headache is gone and I feel happy and relaxed...it is as if all my worries just vanished

Yeah exactly ... except visual work like photography doesn't work that way for me. I enjoy it sure, and it gives me something to do when traveling but there's not a big release. It does help a bit and is needed, as does hiking. Talking helps too. All good but for me music has a unique place.

The other thing is that my work has to be needed. It has to have some broad importance to some people. Fe at work no doubt. On the other side I lean towards abstraction and other useless activities which may have limited applicability, and thus is conducive to procrastination.

So one psychic force, Fe, can thus seem to lead two at least two self defeating behaviors.

And I needed that kind of release, after living in my head for too long again. It's so easy to turn off all the emotional and sensory stuff and live like a brain in a box.

Right, it seems to have a emotional dumping kind of effect, plus it's a physical response too. So much sitting in my brain leads to the mental pressure like you both are talking about.

 

[kvothe27]

Whether I'm working, walking down the street, sitting at home or whatever I often have these wayward thoughts attacking me, for example I may remember some time I said something embarrassing (which could be years ago) in a context that has nothing to do with it, the thought just happens and I have to consciously repress it, I'll be by myself and telling myself to shut up or fuck off because my mind has stumbled upon a landmine of insecurity, the majority of which are completely irrelevant/irrational.

What is that?

Whatever it is it's frustrating, it's kind of like if someone came up to you and said "don't think of elephants" well of course you immediately think of an elephant, but instead of elephants it's like "remember that lame joke you told three years ago that nobody laughed at?" or "those people you were talking to yesterday didn't really seem into it, maybe you were just annoying them and they were too polite to show it?", which is bullshit, there's too many contradictory facts for me to believe it, but that dosen't stop these attacks coming and the daily whack-a-mole tires me.

Best I can figure the left and right hemispheres of my brain want to kill each other.

Rumination can cause anxiety and vice versa.

The tension that leads to such rumination or the rumination that leads to such tension, is the result of your ego's needs -- that is, the ego's need for accuracy and acceptability.

These embarrassing moments reflects what your ego finds to be acceptable about yourself. These moments may be indications that what your ego would find acceptable may not be accurate about yourself. As a result, your ego is attempting to make yourself acceptable by engaging in self-criticism so that you will be less likely, by potentially finding ways of avoiding such embarrassment in the future, to be accurate in accordance with what your ego finds acceptable.

Avoiding these sorts of things as being annoying is to subjugate them or put them in their proper place within your psyche. This means accepting that you are capable of failures and successes, but that these failures and successes do not mean you are a failure or a success. This should be especially evident in that our self-concepts were formed through a process of socialization during which mostly-subjective measures were employed via other people measuring ourselves via themselves. Self-concepts, being largely distorted, if not flat-out delusions, make such concepts and their resulting emotions especially suspect among concepts.

Realizing this, or choosing to believe, may aid you in putting such experiences in their proper place within your psyche, thus allowing you to find peace via stronger self-acceptance. This, in turn, may lead to less frequent incidences of what you're experiencing.

In the above analysis, I employed concepts ascertained from the book, The Adjusted American.

 

[DIALECTIC]

Which hemisphere do you think you prefer? Are you right handed preferring to use left brain functions or left handed (ambidextrous) using all functions equally? Right handed people, supposedly, use their left hemisphere (Ti & Si) to control the right hemisphere (Fe & Ne).

If you are right handed and the left hemisphere (Ti & Si) is in control of the right hemisphere (Ne & Fe)

I might be wrong but i do not agree with that...
To me:

- Ti, Si, Ni, Fi are all RIGHT BRAIN functions, they are CONSERVATIVE and REACTIVE.

- While Te, Se, Ne, Fe are all LEFT BRAIN functions, they are PROGRESSIVE and PROACTIVE.


However i totally agree with that:

I would think that these type of thoughts would be normal because Si is tempting you to mull over past events and experiences, while Ne is telling you move forward in to the future possibilities. Ti is trying to keep everything stable, while Fe may want to make those bottled up emotions come out. Makes sense to me.

In times of chronic stress therefore depressive mindsets, i think we go from:

Ti Ne Si Fe ("feeling what we think...")
Ti (rational systemization / optimization) + Ne (imagined potential possibilities) + Si (remembered similar past experiences) + Fe (adaptation to current human environment) to:

Fe Si Ne Ti ("thinking what we feel...")
Fe (extreme sentimentalism leading to aggression towards others / self) + Si (regrets from our past leading to melancholy / anxiety) + Ne (catastrophization leading to paranoia / panic) + Ti (extreme logic to such a degree that it is irrationnal therfore leading to unreasonable choices).

 

[redbaron]

I might be wrong but i do not agree with that...
To me:

- Ti, Si, Ni, Fi are all RIGHT BRAIN functions, they are CONSERVATIVE and REACTIVE.

- While Te, Se, Ne, Fe are all LEFT BRAIN functions, they are PROGRESSIVE and PROACTIVE.

Huh? Usually it's the other way around:

- Right brain is attributed to creativity, imagination, daring etc.
- Left brain is attributed to factual, detail-oriented, practical, safe etc.

If anything it's not split up by introverted/extroverted functions (which is how you've split up the brain - all the I functions are on the right, all the E on the left) but by F/T/S/N dichotomies:

- T functions are factual reality-based in different ways.
- F functions are symbolic in their own way.
- S functions are detail and experience-based in their own way.
- N functions are imaginative both in their own way.

To me, it would be split up more like:

Left: Ti, Te, Si, Se Right: Ni, Ne, Fi, Fe

~

Actually it might stand to reason how we have our dominant-tertiary loops (Ti-Si) and how it can sort of create that, 'pent up' feeling - we're looping information through only one side of the brain, not paying attention to the big picture and external harmony...which is the (Ne-Fe) loop being suppressed.

Hmm...I wonder if there's a basis there for MBTI to start interlinking with psychological/neuroscience concepts - which might help developing falsifiable methodologies within MBTI...I digress.

 

[DIALECTIC]

Huh? Usually it's the other way around:

- Right brain is attributed to creativity, imagination, daring etc.
- Left brain is attributed to factual, detail-oriented, practical, safe etc.

If anything it's not split up by introverted/extroverted functions (which is how you've split up the brain - all the I functions are on the right, all the E on the left) but by F/T/S/N dichotomies:

- T functions are factual reality-based in different ways.
- F functions are symbolic in their own way.
- S functions are detail and experience-based in their own way.
- N functions are imaginative both in their own way.

To me, it would be split up more like:

Left: Ti, Te, Si, Se Right: Ni, Ne, Fi, Fe

~

Actually it might stand to reason how we have our dominant-tertiary loops (Ti-Si) and how it can sort of create that, 'pent up' feeling - we're looping information through only one side of the brain, not paying attention to the big picture and external harmony...which is the (Ne-Fe) loop being suppressed.

Hmm...I wonder if there's a basis there for MBTI to start interlinking with psychological/neuroscience concepts - which might help developing falsifiable methodologies within MBTI...I digress.

I will have to rethink of it then... Yes i did split up the brain as I/E and not by F/T/S/N dichotomies. Thanks for the head up.

 

[Montresor]

Rumination can cause anxiety and vice versa.

The tension that leads to such rumination or the rumination that leads to such tension, is the result of your ego's needs -- that is, the ego's need for accuracy and acceptability.

These embarrassing moments reflects what your ego finds to be acceptable about yourself. These moments may be indications that what your ego would find acceptable may not be accurate about yourself. As a result, your ego is attempting to make yourself acceptable by engaging in self-criticism so that you will be less likely, by potentially finding ways of avoiding such embarrassment in the future, to be accurate in accordance with what your ego finds acceptable.

Avoiding these sorts of things as being annoying is to subjugate them or put them in their proper place within your psyche. This means accepting that you are capable of failures and successes, but that these failures and successes do not mean you are a failure or a success. This should be especially evident in that our self-concepts were formed through a process of socialization during which mostly-subjective measures were employed via other people measuring ourselves via themselves. Self-concepts, being largely distorted, if not flat-out delusions, make such concepts and their resulting emotions especially suspect among concepts.

Realizing this, or choosing to believe, may aid you in putting such experiences in their proper place within your psyche, thus allowing you to find peace via stronger self-acceptance. This, in turn, may lead to less frequent incidences of what you're experiencing.

In the above analysis, I employed concepts ascertained from the book, The Adjusted American.

When I read this, I felt so ashamed of my inferior intelligence.

Glad you scored it from a book my friend.

 

[Architect]

Huh? Usually it's the other way around:

- Right brain is attributed to creativity, imagination, daring etc.
- Left brain is attributed to factual, detail-oriented, practical, safe etc.

Actually the left/right brain idea has been debunked. There is a slight preference for either side with those activities, but both halves have been proved to be used when doing creative or logical work, and it can switch.

 

[DIALECTIC]

Post Event Ruminations.
http://lmgtfy.com/?q=post+event+ruminations
Complete conjecture So if you are in an environment that doesn't provide negative stimulus, your mind tries to find some to match your chemistry. I ain't no expert, but it makes sense on the surface level.

Do you mean a perceivably "negative" environment is "better" for mental equilibrium while a "loving" / peaceful environment will stimulate internal / irrationnal restlesness / questionning leading to those irrationnal thoughts and ruminations ?

I think i understand what you mean in my current context / environment as opposed to prior context / environment... Would you care to elaborate further so i am 100% i won't misunderstand you ? Thanks

 

[kvothe27]

When I read this, I felt so ashamed of my inferior intelligence.

Glad you scored it from a book my friend.

If you're interested, a deeper/intuitive understanding of these concepts would come from mindfulness meditative practice, as well as philosophical investigations, especially phenomenology.

 

[The Introvert]

I reckon it could be attributed to some sort of evolutionary issue. Think about it; if you can remind yourself, if at all possible (why it's out of context), of something you did that was unpleasant, you'll be less likely to make the same mistake again.

I have no data or information to support this, but my guess would be that it's some sort of trait that's ingrained in us to remind us of traumatic incidents (so we don't do them again). Kind of like a lesser form of PTSD. Functionally, it would behave similarly (just less intense).

Think of it as a blessing, less than a curse. Your brain intuitively reminds itself not to do the same stupid things over and over again. Seems like nowadays people need more of that.

 

[Deckard]

Intrusive thoughts. Read up about OCD, it's fairly likely you will meet the diagnostic criteria.

 

[ZenRaiden]

The association cabels run across the brain in all direction, but most of all have cross and go in to the neocortex. So each time one of the wires fires away there is a massive amount of information that was encoded in the brain activated. Some that are underlined with stronger emotions get into our conscious brain.