ALL of us are kinda schizophrenic... really.
In a very real sense, we all have multiple personalities, even healthy people (by healthy I mean functional or relatively functional people, NO one is functional all of the time, Our TARGET STATE is Inter-dependence, not Codependency)
We have a left brain and a right brain, we have a pair of eyes and a pair of ears, presumably for depth perception (a that word, perception, a LOT more on that concept later)
our Mind (I make a distinction between brain and Mind) also records in stereo:
One set of records/ memories is "What Happened"
the other set of records is "How we Felt about What Happened"
and it's also VERY useful to note that for the vast majority of the time, the playing back (recollection of) those set of recordings is:
A) on autopilot
B) unconscious
By that I mean it usually never occurs to us that we can vary/ control the 'strength' of, the 'volume of' those play backs...
Not only that, most of us are completely oblivious of just how much that PLAYBACK colors, influences... actually CONTROLS the choices we make available to us.
Notice I said: WE MAKE AVAILABLE TO US, not shit is happening to us that is outside of our control... NO ONE IS DOING ANYTHING TO US, we connect the internal dots to assign meaning to incoming stimuli.
Reposted in 2008 from another of my blogs... updated with cross linking to corresponding concepts
More on us being/ having multiple personalities that we're not usually aware of:
More from "I'm OK--You're OK
Brain functions as high fidelity tape recorder
More from "I'm OK--You're OK" by Thomas Harris
Page 11
"In summary we may conclude:
1. The brain functions as a high-fidelity tape recorder.
2. The feelings which were associated with past experiences also are recorded and are inextricably locked to those experiences
3. Persons can exist in two states at the same time. The patient knew he was on the operating table talking with (Dr.) Penfield; he equally knew he was seeing the "Seven-Up Bottling Company... and Harrison Bakery." He was dual in that he was at the same time in the experience and outside of it, observing it.
(hmm, now I'm going to have to find the passage explaining that the patient was remembering something from work, looks like he worked at a 7Up plant and or a bakery, well this IS as blog & I can edit this later when I've more time)
4. These recorded experiences and feelings associated with them are available for replay today in as vivid a form as when they happened and provide much of the data which determines the nature of today's transactions. These experiences not only can be recalled but also relived. I not only remember how I felt. I feel the same way now.
(now this explains much of why codependents react in screwy ways to stuff in the here and now, and why healthier people think we're nuts, what's in our 'flight data recorder' is erroneous, what's in the healthy persons 'flight data recorded' is relatively sane)
Adult Children of Alcoholics feel more screwy than normal people.
Adult Child's Guide to What's Normal
The Drunk can blame the pint.
The Crack Addict can blame the 8ball he smoked (eighth of an ounce of crack to the uninitiated)
The Adult Child (which I'm saying is synonymous with Codependency) is doing addictive stuff, self destructive stuff and it appears he's doing it for NO reason???
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This article is for informational purposes only.
Please contact a licensed professional in your area
if you are in crisis or require mental health services
==========
This article is for informational purposes only.
Please contact a licensed professional in your area
if you are in crisis or require mental health services
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2 comments:
I've been reading about how the brain stores memories - we store the high points and then use our imaginations to fill in the gaps! And we do this so well, we fool ourselves into believing that we are actually remembering. Interesting stuff!
Your last sentence about the co-addict really struck home with me. We really do judge co-addicts harshly and it's completely unfair. Every addiction starts out as a person's attempt to have a need met. And whatever we may thing, addictions work. Until they don't. And when they don't work it takes a lot of guts to change.
How do you think a co addict judges themselves?
I wrote a post on one of my other recovery blogs about how much our society is acclimated to being 'punitive'
http://repairmanual4selfdestructivebehavior.blogspot.com/2008/06/being-punitive-is-counter-productive.html
As addicts (and I think if you're an addict that automatically means you're a codependent) we're already too good at self deprecation.
hmm, now I want to edit or rewrite that post, I don't think I included the part where I think society is acclimated to being punitive...
thanks, now I've got something to blog about
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