- PTSD is full of recurring, disturbing and intrusive thoughts, many of which become negative self-beliefs, beliefs you have about yourself.
- The I-System captures certain thoughts and gets stuck on them. This keeps the I-System “on” and the true self “off”.
- Because the true self is in charge of healing, you can’t heal while this is happening, leaving you feeling discouraged and damaged.
- Mind-body bridging practices quiet the I-System, letting your ability to heal yourself resume on its own.
- What do we do about those recurring, disturbing and intrusive negative thoughts? You already know that pushing them away only gives them more energy.
- The mind works with both positive and negative thoughts. The only time we will get rid of our negative thoughts is when we’re brain-dead.
- Our naturally functioning true-self creates harmony and balance with both sides of opposite thoughts. e.g. being sick and being well are both conditions of the mind-body. Your true self deals appropriately with each.
- But the I-System has a totally different approach. The I-System has a part (subsystem) called the “depressor”. The depressor works by taking your negative thoughts and self-talk (things you say to yourself), and creating body tension and mind clutter. It takes a negative thought like “I’m a loser. I can’t do it. I’ll never be the same. I’m no good, or I’m damaged”, and weaves a story about that thought; embedding the negativity into every cell of your body. You are left seeing yourself as incomplete, damaged or broken and you have a story to prove it! This state is known as the “damaged self”.
- The original question, “What do I do about my negative thought?” now becomes “What do I do about my depressor?”. That’s what this chapter is all about.
- Day 1:
- 05/31/21 (Monday)
- The “depressor” is the doom and gloom of your I-System, using negative self-talk to reinforce the damaged self. Today, you’ll begin to recognize your negative self-talk.
- Throughout the day, notice and log your negative self-talk. Note the nature (such as sharp, cramping, painful, heavy, or tense), location, and intensity of any body tension that comes with it.
- Negative Self-Talk and Body Tension
- Do a “Depressor” map. Around the word “Depressor”, scatter your negative self-talk and any thoughts you have when you’re bummed out. List your Body Tension at the bottom of the map.
- What’s your behavior like when your depressor is active?
- The thoughts on your map are natural thoughts that happen to be negative. The depressor works by grabbing a negative thought and embedding the negativity in your body. The resulting distress you feel starts the vicious cycle as more negative thoughts follow. This creates a heavy burden that affects how you live your life. Seeing how this depressor works breaks this vicious cycle.
- Let’s see how your “depressor” works. From the map you made, take the thought that creates a lot of body tension and disturbs you the most (e.g. I can’t do anything right) and write it in the center of your map – “Troubling Thought From My Depressor Map”. Now, scatter around the oval any thoughts that come to mind. Use phrases or complete sentences like “I was fine before”. List your body tensions at the bottom of the map.
- The map you just did holds the key to controlling your depressor. All the thoughts on your map are spun into stories (true or not) by your I-System. Just think about the stories that come to mind about your negative thoughts. These are called “storylines”. It’s very important to recognize and become aware of their power.
- Storylines are the link between any negative thought that pops into your mind and the mind-body distress you experienced on the last two maps.
- The I-System’s spinning storyline takes a natural negative thought and embeds the negativity into every cell of your body, thereby making a mind-body connection.
- Storylines keep the I-System going, taking you away from the present moment and keeping you from living your life at its best.
- Without the depressor’s storylines, negative thoughts can not cause any distress.
- Be aware of your storylines. Tell yourself “I am having the thought of…” and then become aware of your surroundings and your senses.
- This powerful tools is called “Storyline Awareness“ – you don’t need to push the story away; you just need to be aware of it. Your awareness melts the storyline.
- Do this exercise: Start mulling over one of your most powerful storylines and try to keep it going. Now, be aware of the background sounds and observe how your storyline unfolds. Is it running out of gas? Do you see how powerful your AWARENESS is? What do you notice?
- Look back at the items on your Depressor map and consider each one. See if you can find additional storylines. When spun by your I-System, storylines are just stories; they have a direct physical effect on your body and try to create your reality.
- By using your storyline awareness tool (just being aware of the storyline) during the day, you’ll see how much of your day storylines swallow up.
- Day 2:
- 06/06/21 (Sun)
- A. Throughout the day, notice when your depressor gets you down.
- Observe your body tension, storylines, and behaviors. Note how your depressor interferes with your natural functioning, making you see yourself as damaged.
- a. How do you recognize when your depressor is overactive?
- e.g. heavy body, tight feeling in stomach, thoughts that I’m no good.
- b. What’s your behavior like?
- e.g. become irritable, want to get away from people, eat too much.
- c. How does it interfere with your natural functioning?
- e.g. don’t make good decisions, am a lousy parents, etc.
- d. Do you experience yourself as damaged?
- If Yes, how so?
- e. What were today’s storylines?
- e.g. The thought – My life is too hard. The storyline – I can’t get things done. I’m not the person I need to be. Why did this happen to me? I’m too tired to get through the day…
- f. If what ways are these thoughts and storylines creating who you are?
- g. What are your requirements?
- e.g. My life should be easier. I should get things done. I should be the person I used to be. This shouldn’t have happened to me. I shouldn’t be worn out.
- B. Do a Depressor map, scattering your negative self-talk around the paper. Write as much as you can for a couple of minutes. Describe your body tension at the body of the map.
- a. Body Tension:
- b. Did you have thoughts like “I’m a loser”? Remember, labeling your thoughts lets you see that a thought is just a thought, which keeps your from identifying with the content of that thought. Instead of thinking, “I’m a loser”, say to yourself, “I’m having the thought that ~ I’m a loser”.
- Can you see that the problem is not the content of your thoughts, but rather the depressor capturing that thought, spinning a storyline, and embedding the negativity in your mind and body?
- When your awareness prevents the depressor from embedding the negativity of your thoughts into your body, we call it “befriending your depressor”.
- Observations:
- Day 3:
- Day 4:
- Day 5:
- Day 6:
- Day 7:
Source(s): Mind-Body Workbook for PTSD. A 10-Week Program for Healing After Trauma. By Stanley H. Block, MD, & Carolyn Bryant Block