Managing Stress And Fear

Oh, wait a minute, isn't that exactly what our so-called `society' actually is, if you look closely? Well, that's because to have a real society, every individual needs to take into consideration all the others. A real society takes even more than that, like mutual caring, and a minimal threshold of fluid intelligence. Now if we'd make such a model with only neurodivergents with very large mental bubbles, we'd indeed obtain something like a society. He uses the scheme of leading the customer to perceive (be aware of) the disturbing thought, conduct or sensation, comprehend its message, take it as correct, and connect to it in the present-day (n. He sketches the mental series of suffering and distress, rigidity, avoidance, and poor operation with continuous pain (slide 17). McCracken and Vowles (2008, cited in McCracken, n. More than 75 percent of their study group confirmed positive results. They directed a three-year follow-up study in Bath, calculating information that comprised of medical visits, illness effect outlines, and a pain nervousness signs scale (ibid. Twenty-eight persons partook in ten separate meetings each. The 14 student psychotherapists positioned in this study project each treated two patients, using CBT with one and ACT with the other (ibid. That is to say that 14 of the 28 members received ACT and 14 received CBT. Each student therapist had the same exercise in ACT and CBT before opening the project's treatment sessions. This study found that acceptance seemed to be the most vital procedure to result in both groups (ibid. I illustrated this in the diagram below. Each dot represents an individual, and around two of the individuals (the black dots) I've drawn a circle that represents their mental bubbles. Imagine if all the individuals (dots) in the drawing all have the same size of mental bubble (circle) as the two shown, then every individual would take into account all others. So as you can see, with individuals with large mental bubbles, we indeed would have something we can call a society. Everyone would take into account, in all of their thoughts and decisions, everyone else. In the world of neurotypicals, the image is completely different however.

I drew a representation below, zooming in a bit. Again, every dot is an individual, and around seven dots I drew their mental bubble, neurotypical size. In their small mental bubbles, they only take into account themselves, and at most a few others. If we imagine these bubbles moving around, bumping into each other, each one driven by their own personal desires, attractions, and repulsions, from a zoom-out point of view we would see a lot of interaction, and probably a lot of patterns also - but not a real society. Methods for mental treatment for long-lasting pain comprise of mental litheness and acceptance of sorrow more frequently (ibid. These methods teach patients to face their uneasiness and act with consciousness and flexibility. Psychotherapists aim to be thoughtful to persons undergoing pain. Simple Mindfulness Exercises Mindfulness Techniques in Therapy Sessions Mindfulness is a key element of ACT. Mindfulness methods must be started early in the therapy program, and which methods work best in each circumstance must be determined by both the client and the therapist, say Hayes and Lillis (2012, 97). Just having a customer close his or her eyes is not sufficient. Exercises to be tried at home can be allocated, too. Using mindfulness exercises to start each meeting could be helpful (Hayes and Lillis, 98). It might look like one, but it isn't one. Some of these patterns would be like waves of movements toward or away from a certain stimulus. If you didn't know better, you'd almost mistake it for a group feeling, a society. But these waves would be caused by the existential similarities between the individuals in the wave, without there being a real society. Given that neurotypicals are attracted and repulsed by roughly the same stimuli, one can expect that they would all, individually, move toward or away from a certain stimulus as it enters the field. Like when you throw a banana in a cage of chimps, they'll all rush toward it.

Throw a tiger in there, and they'll all rush away. Does this have to do with a large group of individuals who live together in an organized way, making decisions about how to do things and sharing the work that needs to be done? They all just go berserk and rush for the banana, or away from the tiger. But from a helicopter view, you'd see a seemingly organized movement and might think it's a society. Get the customer to notice how it feels to be sitting there in that room. Say, Close your eyes, plant your feet on the floor and see (ibid. Starting a meeting this way may bring about a more attentive 50-minute session of therapy. Walking for mindfulness can be helpful, say Hayes and Lillis (ibid. The therapist could walk with the customer or ask the customer to go for mindfulness walks. Emphasize on one part of the environment for one or two minutes at a time. As the mindfulness exercises are going on, the therapist might suggest that the customer envisages putting thoughts, feelings, and sensations into boxes (ibid. Without more advanced mindfulness, remark Luoma, Hayes, and Walser (2017, 137), patients find it more difficult to connect to the self without self-assessment (for example, using evaluative language such as I'm lonely or I'm short). One's internal language can weed out the distinction between self as knower and self as known (ibid. Connecting with the current moment can help the individual see himself or herself as a self-in-process that is growing and ever-flowing. Big mistake. Another type of seemingly coordinated movements is caused by the typical herd-like behavior that for instance herbivores display: when a few individuals start running, most others, even if they haven't seen or understood the original danger themselves, just flee along with the few others in their sight. Does this have to do with a large group of individuals who live together in an organized way, making decisions about how to do things and sharing the work that needs to be done? They all just notice that the two or three individuals next to them start running, and blindly do the same. But again, from a helicopter view, you would see a seemingly organized movement of flight as a group. Big mistake again.

So how's neurotypical `society' organized? Quite frankly, it isn't. When was the last time you saw each and every member of `society' come together and discuss at length an issue at hand, until they all agreed and then, in an organized manner, all proceeded to incarnate that decision in every thought and action, earnestly and responsibly? This is called participative democracy, and it doesn't exist in real life, except maybe at times in very small groups of neurodivergent `alternative' people. Organized mindfulness exercises allow an individual to comprehend their self-as-process in a healthier way. One closed-eyes exercise is Floating Leaves on a Moving Stream (ibid. Subjects see themselves in a bending position at the edge of a stream and notice the leaves floating along it. The patient is supposed to visualize putting each thought on each floating leaf. If they experiences one of the thoughts dragging them away, he or she forces themselves to return to the chore of putting thoughts on leaves. The therapist asks if the customer's mind appears to be wandering along the stream. This exercise can be done using other images, such as cars on a road driving past. An alternative to such an exercise is imaging the clouds detached in the sky (Luoma, Hayes and Walser, 2012, 138). The patient envisions they are lying on a green field watching to the atmosphere. They visualizes that his or her experience is devoted to one of the clouds as a word or image. What neurotypicals do have is a roughly pyramid-like structure of chaotic power, defined by struggles, tit-for-tat, grooming, Machiavellism, rampant egotism (me and my tribe), small and large scale abuse, fraud and the occasional altruistic act (the latter preferably with a maximum of spectators so it pays off after all). But it's not even a pyramid. Because the president, even though he's supposed to be at the top, gets f*cked over by his car mechanic way below him who sells him unnecessary repairs at a multiple of the true cost, abusing the president's lack of technical knowledge. Meanwhile the mechanic gets f*cked over by the president in terms of taxes. The dentist f*cks them both over, abusing their lack of knowledge on teeth. And maybe the mechanic helps the dentist because he likes to have a dentist in his network of favors, but he might be having a secret affair with the dentist's wife.

The president doesn't really have the highest power in the country, because he or she needs to dance according to the tune of big money. But the big money people get f*cked over by their accountants who steal from them (or is it actually the other way round? And so on and so forth. You can call this a society if you like, I don't. Next, the therapist appeals that the patient imagines assigning each thought to a cloud. If the mind drifts, the customer should jerk his or her devotion back to the clouds. After each exercise, discussion of the experience can be helpful. Meditation can be helpful. Customers might do mindfulness meditation at home. There are satisfactory CDs, articles, and network articles offering a number of different meditation styles. Hershfield (The OCD Stories, 2016) defines meditation as directing devotion to some broadcaster and noticing when you drift, then readdressing your mind. Mindfulness and meditation exercises should be cautiously standardized for each patient. For example, an individual with a difficult childhood might profit more from eyes-open exercises, since closing their eyes might lead to images of their past ordeals. As the treatment improves mental flexibility, mediation becomes even more effective. Compare the concept of `society' to an ocean and the drops of water in it. When neurotypicals use the word, they refer to an effect on their own droplet and the few droplets of immediate interest to them. Actually, for them, as a droplet, whether they sit in a container the size of a tequila shot glass, or in an ocean, it makes no difference, they don't see further than the few droplets around them anyway. Neurodivergents with a large mental bubble on the other hand actually refer to the existential experience of the droplets in the ocean - all of them - and to the movements of the waves, the temperature gradients in the water, the large currents, and the consequences of all these, on every individual droplet, on the ocean as a whole, and even on what surrounds the ocean. Definitely not the same thing, but frequently the same word is used to refer to both: `society. So if someone rambles on about `society,' and includes primarily neurotypicals (as they usually do), you could very well ask: What on Earth do you think you are talking about?