Tag: Mental Health

Obsessing, and the related anxiety disorder Obsessive Compulsive Disorder, can be extremely difficult to deal with. While OCD is often associated with people needing to wash their hands a lot or needing to check a lock a certain number of times, there are countless different issues people obsess about: relationships, worries, conflicts, fears, phobias, violence, death.

If we break it down, obsessing is essentially our fears coming at us constantly, on repeat. Our subconscious mind, which stores our fears and memories, creates certain mental associations and triggers that set off fear responses in us. Our minds latch onto them and we develop thought addictions. We often respond to these thought addictions with fear, anxiety, anger, shame, and sadness, which only compound them and make them worse. We are filled with so much fear that we might feel it in physical ways: nervous energy, tightness in the chest, crying, panic attacks. Sometimes the obsessive thoughts can be so troubling, so intense, and so pervasive that people consider suicide just to escape the pain in their minds.

We tend to consume ourselves with the subjects of our obsessions rather than the underlying fears causing us to obsess in the first place. We become preoccupied with what our partner said in a fight, or what someone said on social media. Maybe we become consumed with the mistake we made at work last week, or how embarrassed we were a few years ago, and we just can’t seem to let it go. We obsess about our partners and their exes, we obsess about people we feel threatened by, some of us even obsess about celebrities we’ve never met. Sometimes our obsessing lasts hours, sometimes years. Some of us battle the disorder for most of our lives.

Many people develop compulsions that we feel we have to perform, sometimes to help alleviate the anxiety, sometimes to create more fear and anxiety for ourselves because we are subconsciously self-hating and self-destructive. Many of us develop addictions and engage in addictive behaviors, often to escape the inner demons we’re obsessed with. We use our drugs of choice- alcohol, drugs, sex, relationships, food, video games etc. to distract ourselves from the pain and try to numb it. Sometimes we’re addicted to the pain, and that can be part of the vicious, self-destructive cycle. Sometimes we’re conscious of how this all works together within us, often we’re not.

It is super important for our healing journeys to begin to explore our thoughts and behaviors, and to try to have a deeper understanding of the ways our mental health functions in our lives.

Our mental health issues and addictions are interconnected and related. Let the community at Enlightened Solutions help you start to sort it all out. Call (833) 801-LIVE.

Many addicts suffer from mental health issues, and similarly many of those suffering from mental health problems also struggle with addictions. We tend to think of addiction as a dependence on drugs and alcohol, but people can have addictive relationships to anything from eating, to lying, to shopping, to dating. Just as our behaviors can be addictive, so too can our thought patterns be addictive and obsessive. There are some clear links between addiction and mental health problems, and these are a few of them.

Addicts can be addicted not only to their drug or behavior of choice, but also to ways of thinking that become ingrained in their subconscious minds after years of programming. For example, an alcoholic might have come to believe on a deep level that he is inherently inadequate and unworthy of love. He might create mental and emotional associations between drinking and feeling more confident, extroverted and secure within himself. This thought pattern reinforces and perpetuates the problematic behavior, in this case drinking alcohol, and as he continues to drink, he may feel worse about himself, making him want to drink more, thus continuing the cycle.

A person with chronic depression may have formed thought patterns over the years of self-doubt and self-hatred. As she continues to tell herself stories that she will never reach her goals, or that she is inferior to others around her, she becomes more and more addicted to self-deprecation. Her low self-esteem makes her more depressed, and as our inner world creates our outer world, this can manifest in more circumstances reflecting this belief: financial instability, unhealthy relationships, daily struggles- making her that much more depressed.

Anxiety-sufferers may be addicted to worrying, to pessimism, to jumping to conclusions, or to expecting the worst-case scenario. Those suffering from delusions might compulsively accuse others of silencing or victim-blaming them. Similarly, people can develop different forms of neurosis, such as pathological lying, as coping mechanisms that morph into addictive, compulsive behaviors. Another neurosis, Obsessive Compulsive Disorder, is essentially an addiction to certain thoughts and behaviors. All of these mental health problems can derail your life, in much the same way addiction can, and all of the above can be a result of our relationship to trauma: how we face our trauma or run from it, how we address it or try to escape it. Do we feel our pain and find healthy ways to heal it, or do we turn to self-destructive coping strategies that ultimately harm us more?

You’re not alone in this. Enlightened Solutions provides recovery treatment, therapy, mentoring, holistic healing and more. Call (833) 801-LIVE to get the support you need.