When it comes to addictions and mental health problems such as depression and anxiety, there are some common factors in how we tend to manage our thoughts and feelings. We tend to engage in certain thought patterns that can bring down our mood, that make us very sad, anxious and afraid, and that exacerbate our mental and emotional health issues.
Over time, we become attached to these unhealthy thought patterns. We cling to them, almost as if we need them, as if they will help us, when they clearly don’t. Many of us are over-thinkers and over-worriers, and we get lost in the anxieties we create. We are pessimistic and come to expect negative outcomes. Some of us automatically jump to the worst-case scenario and catastrophize by default.
For some people these thought patterns can become addictive and obsessive and contribute to OCD, or Obsessive Compulsive Disorder. Fearful thought patterns relating to other people and socializing, our self-esteem and how we fit into social scenes, can become Social Anxiety Disorder. Chronic thought patterns of low self-esteem can morph into inadequacy/inferiority complexes. When we allow our thought patterns to go unchecked, they can become obsessions, complexes and neuroses that can totally derail our mental and emotional health.
One of the subconscious mind’s main functions is to keep us safe, but because our minds have been affected by trauma, they sometimes work on overdrive to keep us afraid. We can find better ways to keep ourselves safe than by following the self-destructive guidance of our wounded ego minds. To do this, we have some work to do to reprogram the subconscious mind and to create new thought patterns.
Many of us struggle with negative thought patterns of anxiety, insecurity, judgment and criticism. These are all based in fear, so to heal them, we can choose to practice new positive thought patterns that serve us better, that are rooted in faith, security, and confidence; compassion, empathy, understanding and love. We can read, write and repeat affirmations that reflect these better feelings. We can meditate. We can give more focus, time and energy to the thoughts that make us feel good rather than to the ones that have been keeping us down. It is possible to reprogram the subconscious mind and to start developing new, happier thought patterns that allow us to be mentally, emotionally and spiritually free.
Training our minds to work with us rather than against us is an important part of recovery. Enlightened Recovery can help. Call (833) 801-LIVE.