[Neurons] 2019 Neurons #9 WHEN THINKING GETS OUT OF CONTROL

[Michael Hall]

From: L. Michael Hall

2019 Neurons #9

Feb. 11, 2019

 

 

WHEN THINKING

GETS OUT OF CONTROL

 

Just as a person can get out of control, so can thinking.  Thinking can get
out of control.  Nor is that all that uncommon.  It may happen to you, or
someone you love, at almost any time.  What triggers it?  All that's needed
is a state of fear.  Get into a state of panic and your thinking will get
out of control.  So also with any intense experience of fear, anger,
excitement, lust, etc.  Almost any very strong and intense emotional state
will do it.  Then, instead of calmly and rationally thinking something
through- we jump to conclusions, over-generalize, awfulize, catastrophize,
personalize, etc.  Suddenly our thinking regresses to the cognitive
distortions.

 

When we are threatened, or in a state of fear, we commonly fall back to the
thinking patterns of childhood (the cognitive distortions).  That's because
the emotional side of our thinking is prevailing rather than the rational
side of our thinking.  Threat, danger, overload - these are the things that
trigger the lower functions of our brain to be activated.  That's when we go
into the flight-flight-freeze response of the "general arousal syndrome."
Then blood is withdrawn from brain and stomach and sent to the larger muscle
groups preparing us for a more fundamental survival response.

 

No wonder we can't effectively think and especially calmly think through an
issue.  We're definitely in the wrong state for doing that.  If you want to
do your best thinking- you'll need to reduce the sense of threat and/or
danger.  You have got to step out of reacting so that you can consciously
respond.

 

Now when it comes to your thinking getting out of control, you can easily
recognize that state or experience.  You or another person becomes defensive
and argumentative.  You begin speaking in over-generalized ways saying that
things always happen, no one cares, everybody is against you, etc.   When
thinking gets out of control, people stop being reasonable.  They are not
only emotional, they are overly emotional.  If they were merely emotional,
that would be fine and it would be healthy.  It is when we get overly
emotional that we then have a problem doing our best thinking.

 

At that point you cannot reason with them.  They are too agitated, upset,
and irritable to think anything through.  Accordingly, you cannot have a
healthy disagreement.  They are quick to demonize and moralize.  The other
side is not just wrong, they are bad.  Evil.  The issue is not just a
different point of view, it is immoral.  Now they are thinking and talking
in stereotypical ways so that they no longer treat people as individuals,
but as categories.  That allows them to more easily dismiss what they say
because "those people" would say that!

 

Now does any of this sounds like the way politicians, news commentators, and
others on television and radio commonly talk?  Dahhh!  It is the way that
most of them constantly talk!  So, yes, of course.  Now while I suppose it
keeps the audience engaged in a similar way to how a sporting event keeps
people engaged, it sets up things as a battle.  "Who's ahead?  Who's going
to win?"  It doesn't really help people to think better, understand a
problem, or solve an actual problem.

 

The good news is that you can also tell when thinking is under control.
Then, when someone makes a good point, the opposing side will acknowledge it
and say, "That's a good point."  "Fair enough, I'll give you that.  That
makes sense."  But when was the last time you heard that from a politician?
It certainly doesn't seem to happen very often by my count.

 

Anyone whose thinking gets out-of-control from time to time probably needs a
cognitive make-over.  The issue is not only a matter of defusing yourself or
someone else, the problem is deeper.  It goes to the meta-cognitive capacity
to recognize, monitor, and regulate one's thinking itself.  How about
yourself?  Would you like a cognitive make-over?

 

 

 

For further reading:

              Executive Thinking (2018)

              Winning the Inner Game (2007)

              Neuro-Semantics (2012)

              Defusing Hotheads, a training manual, and a small booklet.

 

 

 

 

 

 




 

 

L. Michael Hall, Ph.D., Executive Director 

Neuro-Semantics 

P.O. Box 8

Clifton, CO. 81520 USA                             

               1 970-523-7877 

                    Dr. Hall's email:
<mailto:meta at acsol.net\hich\af31506\dbch\af31505\loch\f31506> meta at acsol.net


    cid:261CED33-4408-4124-862B-B9A4B37A367A

    

 

Dr. L. Michael Hall writes a post on "Neurons" each Monday.  For a free
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