symptom

[this must be somebody else's fault...]

Delusion:  It is what it is.  An issue develops, seeming to exist as a potential threat to your mental well-being, with potential for goal-related interruptions, mental distractions or all around retardations.  If it were just another human, it would have robbed you of your valuables and left you half-beaten in a ditch by now.  Your mind, despite whatever discipline it can cling to, tends to wrap itself around the subject whenever it’s allowed a free moment. You close your eyes for sleep, only to find the problem staring at you in the face with a beastly grin.  It even has the audacity to enter your dreams.  There just isn’t a line of respect these things will not cross.

No matter how hard you may try, you cannot escape its constant reminding, hoping that you spend your worry on it.

Seclusion:  Underneath it all.  The more ridiculous of us would allow such an intrusive pest to consume specific parts of our lives until it successfully numbed all sensation in those same specific parts.  The moderately intelligent find a way to deal with the issue, sometimes positively; other times, not so much.  However, we must ask…are we certain there isn’t more to the situation itself?  Perhaps deeper?

The wisdom of the people I know, coupled with little inspirations from my Creative Whack Pack have allowed me to dig deeper into a little problem of my own.

Seclusion: Issue at hand…or was it foot?  A recent distraction has made my own life a bit more challenging lately, as I struggle to reestablish control over my sleep and concentration.  As usual, the first step comes with recognizing the distraction for what it is, and not what it simply appears to be.  This is not necessarily as easily done as the sentence is written.  Again, underneath it all, the issue itself, or the root cause of the distraction, may very well be deeper than the distraction, depending on how it presents itself.

Once the root cause is determined, only then can one formulate a plan of action by which to attack the problem.  Should the issue be emotional in nature, you have a choice:  repress the offending emotion, or express it, constructively if possible, and allow it to follow its natural course.  The latter, while tending to be more time consuming, is not only easier, but probably more healthy.  If you want a challenge, and are willing to risk the potential for future psychological problems of the most interesting kind, I’d recommend the former.  I would also note here the recommendation that you not take my recommendations from here on out.

Should the root cause have the flavor of mental lapse for no apparent reason, you really have only one option: run head first into a brick wall and repeat until either the neurons start firing again, or you die.

If the issue is a social one, it probably always has been and always will be, in which case you are what professionals might call “Totally Screwed.”

Seclusion:  Attack.  Having secured a root cause and plan of attack for your brain’s alignment problem, or, in this case, my brain’s alignment problem, the best offense is a good offense.  Yes, you read that correctly.  Defense, in this case, is pointless, and, if you had a decent defense to begin with, you, by which I mean I, would not be in this mess to begin with.  Attack.  Repeat until resolution is achieved, or, depending on your method of attack, you wind up in the mental hospital where they give you too many drugs, a dash of neglect, and you wind up sleeping in a bunk near some guy who swears that the military transmissions he recieves in his head are due to an invisible implant located three centimeters deep in his brain and that it was surgically placed there by the CIA for unknown purposes.  Oh, and his name is probably Ned.

Conclusion:  Disciplinary action.  Like most everything else in life, the many varieties of distraction or divergence can be met and repelled by solid mental discipline.  After a few friendly reminders, which I need from time to time, I came face to face with this truth in resolving my own little thought-devouring disturbance.  Alas, even the most incredibly-disciplined mind will have to contend with the occasional “hiccup” every now and then, and there is no truly escaping this kind of irritation completely.  Such is a human frailty.

Of course, I suppose I could just try running head first into the wall again.