4 ms·
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 yea
by 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 agoI 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.