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I noticed during a very anxious time in my life that my thoughts (and speech to a certain extent) were most often overly tentative and full of qualifications. (

I noticed during a very anxious time in my life that my thoughts (and speech to a certain extent) were most often overly tentative and full of qualifications. (I even wrote a very short story related to the idea which makes use of a similar tack as your first sentence: https://gdoc.pub/doc/1w2Fxd41ptoqD-Qv7NKNK7Yg9pfdE2dg5_ncHmmiL9RQ https://gdoc.pub/doc/1w2Fxd41ptoqD-Qv7NKNK7Yg9pfdE2dg5_ncHmm...) The way it seemed to me was that I was in a mode where I needed to be very careful about not messing up (and it seemed likely that I would), so I constantly over-analyzed, with the typical result that I found all sorts of ways things technically could go wrong. I'm guessing an element of paranoia is typically involved as well when you find this pattern of speech/thought.

HumanDrivenDev 9y ago
> I noticed during a very anxious time in my life that my thoughts (and speech to a certain extent) were most often overly tentative and full of qualifications. Yes that's definitely a thing. Which is probably why the findings in the article are so surprising (that online among their peers, depressed and anxious people talk much more strongly). It really puts you at a disadvantage in life too, which is a nasty cycle.
scruple 9y ago
Did it dissipate naturally or did you start editing yourself to strip those sorts of speech patterns out of your writing and talking? I noticed in the last year or two that I was abusing absolutist words in written text and have been working to self-correct through heavy editing. It's challenging, these words are what naturally flow from my fingers when I type. Of course, I do have my own personal struggles with anxiety, too, which go back well over a decade. Also, I agree with your thoughts re: over analysis and paranoia, I see that in myself.
- westoncb 9y ago
  I didn't do anything on the level of speech. I figure it's a form of 'treating the symptom'—of course I'm not a medical professional, though :) One thing that did seem to help was just changing my values about how much proof one should have in order to act with certainty. I was reading some William James and he talked about the tradeoff between one's ability to act and one's choice to continue contemplating possibilities. I had previously viewed it as without tradeoff to continue analyzing possibilities, never fully committing to one viewpoint—it was just a good thing, an expression of my capabilities as an analytical thinker. I don't see it that way anymore. I still have some anxiety issues but they don't run my life anymore. I think the biggest thing was regaining trust in the non-conscious parts of myself—seemed like I was living an extended Centipede's Dilemma (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Centipede%27s_Dilemma https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Centipede%27s_Dilemma). Meditation seems to have helped also (partly in relation to regaining trust). Learning to see anxiety as okay or at least totally beyond one's control, rather than trying to fight it, has also helped.

HumanDrivenDev 9y ago

> I noticed during a very anxious time in my life that my thoughts (and speech to a certain extent) were most often overly tentative and full of qualifications. Yes that's definitely a thing. Which is probably why the findings in the article are so surprising (that online among their peers, depressed and anxious people talk much more strongly). It really puts you at a disadvantage in life too, which is a nasty cycle.

scruple 9y ago

Did it dissipate naturally or did you start editing yourself to strip those sorts of speech patterns out of your writing and talking? I noticed in the last year or two that I was abusing absolutist words in written text and have been working to self-correct through heavy editing. It's challenging, these words are what naturally flow from my fingers when I type. Of course, I do have my own personal struggles with anxiety, too, which go back well over a decade. Also, I agree with your thoughts re: over analysis and paranoia, I see that in myself.

westoncb 9y ago
I didn't do anything on the level of speech. I figure it's a form of 'treating the symptom'—of course I'm not a medical professional, though :) One thing that did seem to help was just changing my values about how much proof one should have in order to act with certainty. I was reading some William James and he talked about the tradeoff between one's ability to act and one's choice to continue contemplating possibilities. I had previously viewed it as without tradeoff to continue analyzing possibilities, never fully committing to one viewpoint—it was just a good thing, an expression of my capabilities as an analytical thinker. I don't see it that way anymore. I still have some anxiety issues but they don't run my life anymore. I think the biggest thing was regaining trust in the non-conscious parts of myself—seemed like I was living an extended Centipede's Dilemma (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Centipede%27s_Dilemma https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Centipede%27s_Dilemma). Meditation seems to have helped also (partly in relation to regaining trust). Learning to see anxiety as okay or at least totally beyond one's control, rather than trying to fight it, has also helped.