Comments for The Monkey Mind Chronicles

Comment on “This is not Yiddish, Catherine” by maquinas vendingmonterrey

maquinas vendingmonterrey — Mon, 06 May 2013 11:57:25 +0000

Hi there, simply become alert to your blog via Google, and found that it’s really informative. I’m going to be careful for brussels. I will be grateful in the event you proceed this in future. Many other folks might be benefited out of your writing. Cheers!

Comment on Bay Area Events by Jeanette

Jeanette — Thu, 14 Feb 2013 23:43:18 +0000

It's hell being an anxious person in the SF bay area; being amongst the zen people is maddening. What are you smiling about?! Welcome, and enjoy your visit!

Comment on Full WTF with Marc Maron by crise angoisse

crise angoisse — Tue, 20 Nov 2012 13:56:37 +0000

Ravi de constater combien vous êtes beaucoup plus développé chez vous pour la prise en charge de l'anxiété et de la . Je reviendrais vous lire avec plaisir.

Comment on Full WTF with Marc Maron by Henry

Henry — Thu, 15 Nov 2012 13:43:07 +0000

I enjoyed your hilarious interview with Marc, and was especially interested in the section about how anxiety ruined your original relationship with your eventual wife. I was on the other end of that arrangement for 10 years, dealing with a wife who suffered from anxiety that I thought was caused by her self-loathing and selfishness. So I wonder … when you said you thought the process worked the other way — your anxiety caused self-loathing and selfishness — was that an insight you had solely about yourself, or is that the general understanding among psychologists?

The interview got me to order the book, and I look forward to reading it. It sounded on WTF like you had achieved some insight into what you put your girlfriend/wife through, so I’d like to suggest that you or your wife consider writing a companion book about people like her and like me who suffer from being in love with someone who is incapable of loving us in return because of anxiety and self-absorption. Not sure how to make it funny, but that’s why you get the big bucks.

Comment on Full WTF with Marc Maron by Ana Julia

Ana Julia — Mon, 12 Nov 2012 04:57:05 +0000

So… I was freaking up around google, trying to understand wtf is this thing that my therapist said that I have, and after few weeks – I think it was 2 – I started to get crazier, because now, besides everything I’m worried about since the day I can remember, I also have a psiquiatric disorder. And, I spent my whole weekend thinking that I might be “sick” for the rest of my life, that will keeps me unproductive and I would not finish writing my college works, that i would not be able to study hard for the finals, that I would screw my whole life and It was very impossible to stop this thoughts – even when I realized how stupid they are.
Then, suddenly appears your blog. And I could see how funny my stupidity could be, that you (and others – from the videos!) are older than me, you are married, you have a kid and, well, you don’t look like someone who have a ruined life. And… I finally got better!
I wrote all this bla bla bla just to say that I’m grateful.
Thank you!
– Now I can start believing that there really is a light in the end of the tunnel.
=D

PS: I hope you can understand my english, I think It’s ok, but It might suck and be impossible to understand. Happily, the “thank you” is completely understandable, and It’s also the main part.

Comment on WTF w/ Marc Maron Preview by DavidjM

DavidjM — Sat, 10 Nov 2012 07:47:01 +0000

Well that was cathartic. I plan to send this podcast to all the people in my life I wish I could talk to and tell them ‘THIS! This is what my brain is doing all the god damned time. This is why I hate you sometimes and hate everyone else all the time and why I have sabotaged my entire life.’
I was listening with mounting excitement, thinking to myself ‘this is me. but this guy has it together now, so he’s going to get to the bit where he fixed himself’, but that point never came. Because, as I have been aware all along, it’s up to me to do the work. Forever. Which fucking sucks. But that’s stiff shit.
I’m going to get that book.

Comment on “The Anxious Idiot” by Steve Pavilanis

Steve Pavilanis — Mon, 05 Nov 2012 22:19:01 +0000

Hi Dan,

I love your book and the way you approach teaching others about anxiety.

Keep up the great work!

Cheers,
Steve

Comment on Absence Anxiety by Jan

Jan — Sun, 30 Sep 2012 13:52:45 +0000

I write most everyday about things that are heavy on my mind. The only thing that makes me able to write is knowing that I can speak freely because:

A. No one is listening
B. It’s anonymous, for the most part
C. I would explode if I didn’t.

Maybe you’re not being lazy. Maybe you’re just over exposed.

Comment on Therapy Log #2 by Julie

Julie — Tue, 18 Sep 2012 18:36:36 +0000

It is good to compasisonately remember that you are worrying in order to try to solve your problems. That is the whole ‘lie’ that backs up and supports the worry/rumination factory/cycle. Tell yourself also that the consequences of worrying is that it will make you worry more.
Once you notice yourself worrying say: Am I doing this to try to solve some sort of problem? If yes, then am I willing to take an action to solve this problem, some small step? and if not, can I do something else helpful? If anything, such as clean or exercise? Then say: Unless I am willing right now to do something towards this problem, Iwill just have to distract myself. But If I feel that this problem could use some thinking time, I will decide upon a time to think about it. In this way, you become in complete control of worry!!

Comment on Therapy Log #2 by Julie

Julie — Tue, 18 Sep 2012 18:28:53 +0000

Leave your therapist. He should not be promoting anything that makes you go down the rabbit trail of your worry thoughts by asking you to imagine the worst things that can happen- that sort of thinking is practicing worrying, and will only serve to keep conditioning your mind that it is okay to worry. The whole point is to teach your brain to stop the worry and rumination through retraining it, refocusing it.
Worrying is done as a way to try to overcome your problems. When you worry, it is because you believe that by worrying you can solve the problem. It is problem solving in overdrive.
Instead, #1 tell yourself, i dont have to think about that right now. #2 Im ready to take some sort of action or step to make things better. #3Im going to distract myself with some other helpful activity to get my mind off of worrying.
Why is it important not to worry? Because every time you worry you re-teach your brain to use worrying. You tell the brain that you will allow worrying. Therefore, it comes back several times fold.
Why else? Because this worry takes up mind energy and mind focus that cuold be used and spent on coping with life and doing positive things for yourself. WOrrying takes up so much mind energy and focus that it actually steals your will to do other things- thus leading to what looks like laziness; except that you arent really lazy. The mind is guzzling up all the gasoline you have to live.
Check out the ‘Poisoned Parrot’ Page on the website. It says we have all been given a parrot. It is not knowledgeable, not wise, not understanding, not smart, or compassionate. (that last one I added). It is critical and shaming voice. But it talks all day. It is repeating words, but like a parrot it doesnt actually understand what it is saying, it’s like a puppet, and yet it seems alive and seems ‘smart’… At the bottom of the page it says, the more you listen to the parrot the more it will speak, and the less you listen to it, the less it will speak.
Theres another page somewhere in the site where it defines worry and rumination, the differences between them. Study those definitions very well. And everytime a thought comes in your head that you notice is bothering you, ask: is this fear of the future, my ability to cope which leads to stress and anxiety? Or is this rumination, regret, I should have done this, I shouldnt have done that, and past failures, leading to shame and sadness and depression? Once you can label the thought as either of these, you can then decide to either do something constructive toward your worry or distract your mind by being active.
In less than 3 weeks I have cleared my mind and gained control and more space. But if you miss 2 days, the problems all run straight back.