Anxiety Funnel Of Thoughts In Emotional Disorders

2024 Author: Harry Day | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 15:43

When it comes to psychogenic emotional disorders (neuroses, depression, addiction), much attention is paid to childhood, traumatic events, negative life experiences, limiting attitudes, personality traits and character. But today I propose to take a look into the pantry of negative thinking. Specifically, in the direction of anxiety funnel, which is completely typical for emotional disorders. I often hear such words: "I have anxiety, but I cannot understand where it comes from …".

Then there are quite reasonable explanations on the topic that "there are no reasons for alarm", "there are no obsessive thoughts either …". And already in the course of these justifications, a sequence of anxiety funnels peeps out.

Step 1. Doubts and depreciation

This couple almost always goes hand in hand and, often, falls out of sight of human consciousness. You may wonder if you did the right thing. Doubt if you are doing what you are doing right. You may have doubts about what and how you will succeed in the future. But any doubts give rise to uncertainty. Simple by definition. And already uncertainty potentiates your anxiety.

Depreciation is more difficult. We devalue other people and circumstances. We devalue problems and ourselves. We do this in order to relieve stress from the situations in which we find ourselves. More often we do this unconsciously, and therefore we do not notice how we ourselves are digging a reliable foundation for anxiety. After devaluing something, we DO NOT add order to the situation. On the contrary, we are depriving her of order. Thereby potentiating anxiety.

Step 2. Labels, assumptions and interpretations in their own direction (with a "-" sign)

Such thoughts and inferences can directly come out of the previous step, or they can appear on their own. Their distinctive feature is that they are more emotionally active in stimulating anxiety. After assessing ourselves or a situation negatively, we automatically create a feeling of a certain suffering from its consequences. Although, it would seem, well, how can one suffer from the phrase "here I am a dunce" or "I was, of course, wrong here"? But, given the fact that by hanging labels, we do not offer any solution to a problem situation, then … we introduce more uncertainty into any situation. Moreover, we do not consciously notice this.

Step 3. An attempt to look for problems in oneself

Any negative label that you send in your direction can easily turn into an attempt to start looking for reasons why everything turned out this way. If you call yourself "stupid," then you may begin to ponder why you did exactly what was stupid. Or why you're not smart enough. If you feel that your emotions are excessive, then you can begin to ponder the extent and cause of their abnormality. Or you can ask questions from the series - how normal is what is happening to you. You can also listen to your thoughts, sensations in the body. Which, of course, significantly increases the level of alertness.

Step 4. Negative expectations

Any search for something negative in yourself (in your health, in your sanity, in your experiences) can easily lead to thoughts about how what is happening now will affect the future. Critical thoughts in the style of "what if it happens so", "what if I lose control", "what if I go crazy", "what if something goes wrong", "and if I get worse" can quickly flood the mind. Usually, a person tries to block such thoughts purely mechanically. Don't think about it. This only aggravates the situation, since restraining your thoughts only increases internal tension and increases the number of your spontaneous negative thoughts.

Step 5. Tautology

We all know that 1 + 1 = 2. In mathematics. But in the psyche and nuclear physics, this equation can give a completely different result. So, if you take 1 atom of plutonium and one more atom of plutonium, and disperse them well, then there will not even be 2 atoms of plutonium. And the beginning of a nuclear reaction. The psyche is the same. Take any negative idea, repeat it twice in a row. And … your anxiety is multiplied. For example, you can tell yourself:

- well, that's not normal. This is definitely not normal.

- what if I can't do it? This is what happens if I can't

And that's all. The alarm is EXTREMELY amplified.

Step 6. The untwisted plate

And the next step is already a variation of the previous one, but with a different angle and different sauce. When you start thinking about a problem situation emotionally and pointlessly. In style:

What if I can't handle the situation? And if everything goes bad !? I can't stand it! Well, why exactly is everything so bad with me ?! Why did I get such a life! This is not fair! I don't want to decide this! I'm just tired…

Well, and so on and so forth. There are no specific features at this step except one. There are many thoughts - no suggestions. From the word at all. There are only thoughts and emotions. And anxiety that swells by leaps and bounds.

Step 7. Feeling the loss of the opportunity to influence the situation

The longer and more actively you think about the situation that worries you WITHOUT making a decision and starting to implement it, the higher the likelihood that at some point you will feel your own powerlessness. At the same time, you can declare to yourself that nothing depends on you. That you can't do anything. That you are failing. That you cannot do anything with yourself (with your emotions, desires or thoughts). Or you can try to shift responsibility for your condition onto loved ones, significant people, doctors (for example, in case of panic attacks, many immediately call an ambulance). Just not to be alone with your experiences. And they are sharply increasing. After all, powerlessness always inflates anxiety to enormous proportions.

Step 8. Peremptory judgment

And the knot of anxiety ends at one point - at the very moment when you declare something to yourself. At the peak of emotional stress. Something not proven by anyone (except you), but the most capacious and sharp.

For example. That's it, I'm already out of my mind. These are delusional thoughts! Everything, nothing will help me. Everything, so it will always be with me. My life is over! I have only one way out!

The phrase can sound without much pathos, but then it is necessary with emotional pressure. She may not be very conscious. But a person unconsciously singles out and repeats it. Like a nail in the lid of a coffin, such a thought is driven into the mind and over and over again betrays a couple of anxiety and powerlessness.

A couple of clarifications … All of the above does not require the presence of all steps in any given situation. That is, such thoughts can be spread over time. You can also genuinely believe in such thoughts and actively defend them by declaring that this is what you are thinking. Or that this is exactly the case. But, mind you, such thoughts do not help you in any way out of problem situations. I.e

By using the anxiety funnel, you, in fact, create your own anxiety and powerlessness! And, although spontaneous thoughts do not depend in any way on your consciousness, you can still influence your stream of thoughts:

A) regularly experiencing your negative emotions

B) directing your thoughts into the context of constructive, positive or forward-looking thinking; for example, asking yourself a question at the moment of sounding any negative thought about what I want in the current situation.

And if you can’t do it YET, it only means that you can’t do it YET. And nothing more.

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Author: Kuzmichev Alexander Sergeevich