Anxiety and the Unconscious

[Mole]

As I approach the computer, I feel anxiety. I ask myself, what will I write, and as I don't know what I will write, I feel anxiety.

However as I sit down to write, my anxious mind seems to disappear and not knowing what to write also disappears, and the words seem to write themselves without anxiety.

So I don't need to control the words, they speak for themselves.

Or perhaps they well up from my unconscious without anxiety. It's as though Central has created a space for my unconscious to come out to play.

I think this is quite extraordinary and I haven't quite got my mind around it yet. But I think it is worth thinking about. What do you think?

 

[ThatsWhatHeSaid]

Edit: I keed I keed!!!

 

[Jaguar]

Xanax?

 

[Thalassa]

I used to have that loooong time ago when I first started posting on Live Journal. I also used to have panic attacks back then.

It sounds almost like you might have social anxiety, like you're worried about what people might think of what you say? But then once you start writing then you feel better?

 

[ThatGirl]

Funny, I was just thinking the other day that perhaps I am too hard on social networking sites and personal blogs. I figured with the technology age rapidly raising frequency of psychosis, and writing being emotionally therapeutic, that it is probably fortunate for us that so many people have some sort of internet writing place.

 

[Mole]

Warm, Charming and Humourous

Funny, I was just thinking the other day that perhaps I am too hard on social networking sites and personal blogs. I figured with the technology age rapidly raising frequency of psychosis, and writing being emotionally therapeutic, that it is probably fortunate for us that so many people have some sort of internet writing place.

Yes, as I find my unconscious comes out to play on Central, I find I am allowing my unconscious to play during my daily life. And I find I am becoming warm, charming and humourous in my daily life.

 

[Mole]

Detachment and Involvement

I think that literacy creates detachment while the internet creates involvement.

And detachment means we are detached from ourselves, we are divided selves, and we observe ourselves.

And involvement means going with the flow. It means we are no longer divided. We no longer watch ourselves anxiously. We allow ourselves to float on the emotion of the group. We allow ourselves to float on the emotion of the moment. And after one moment comes another and another and another. And we are forever in the moment

We are no longer a house divided by literacy, we are an electronic tribe that flows together in the moment.

 

[ThatGirl]

Lol, that's one way to look at it. You lost me on the group though.

 

[Mole]

Like Magic

Lol, that's one way to look at it. You lost me on the group though.

Ah, you see how you resist. And it is your resistance that gives us the clue to your psyche.

You resist us, you resist us, you resist us until your resistance is disolved in the group.

Naturally the dissolution of your ego in the group causes you anxiety. And the magic is that just as the group causes your anxiety, the group will dissolve our anxiety, like magic

 

[guesswho]

I feel the same way.

However there's a downside to this. Involving in an online social environment will diminish your interest in the "real" social environment outside.

I've noticed that a lot of people on the forum suffer from anxiety (myself included), so in a way ...the forum becomes like a sanctuary where you can open yourself without having to confront your anxiety.

And the downside to that is that you don't get to fight anxiety as much as you used to, you stop exposing yourself to the stimulus that causes everything, and when you'll expose yourself again, your anxiety will be higher, because you've avoided it. So in a way it's like a defense mechanism.

But even though you stop struggling with anxiety, talking with people in a "safe zone" can be therapeutic and make you better without having to confront your anxiety?! is that even possible ?

I don't know...

I'm glad I found you people