Overthinking vs Thinking Psychologically

Hi!

I had a question regarding the difference between overthinking and thinking psychologically.

Dr Sarno in his books mentions the technique of 'thinking psychologically' whenever you have physical pain. Trying to delve into what may be causing the tension or what may have caused some repressed anger that could be triggering the pain.

Dr Alan in his program gives the example of a woman who is essentially thinking too much, which is then causing more tension and pain.

I just wanted to know if there is any difference. What is a better approach to use?

Should one be 'thinking psychologically' as Dr Sarno says or not think at all, and rather just sit with the emotion or sensation practice techniques like somatic tracking.
On a personal note I do feel like I tend to overthink things a lot. Not only pain wise but also when I make decisions or when I overanalyse the way someone spoke to me or how I spoke to them.

Any help would be appreciated.

Much Love to all.

 

I think the difference is that "overthinking" is when we analyze things on a purely intellectual basis. As @Baseball65 said recently it's like we're trying to figure something out like it's a math problem. "Thinking psychologically" is when we try to see the repressed emotions or long held thinking errors behind our TMS symptoms. You recently gave an excellent example of thinking psychologically when you realized your pain was linked to the pressure you were putting on yourself to play a sport perfectly. You've got this!

 

This is actually a great question.
I had to think about this for a minute (pun intended).....

Thinking psychologically vs 'too much'... When I am thinking psychologically, I am open and there is a feeling of spaciousness and distance and perspective. There's me and The experience I have had up to now...with some distance between them for perspective

Thinking too much is familiar (do it all the time) and is constricting and tends to end in 'F&#K it !' I am literally jammed up against my own self and can only see my thoughts and petty grievances to the exclusion of everything else.

Eckhart Tolle talks about this early in his books... To say 'I think' is like saying "I breathe' or 'I digest'... We can't STOP thinking even if we wanted to...However to 'watch the thinker' IS the strategy of Buddhism . ...and is the place to 'think psychological'

Mr Tolle explains this better than I ever could

 

I'm not sure I fully understand. However this explanation I'm quoting above makes sense to me on some level. Will see where this leads me. Thanks!

 

@JanAtheCPA @Ellen I think I kind of get it. Still digesting a little bit. Thanks for the replies!

 

Hi, quick follow up question.

How does thinking psychologically tie in with not giving the pain much importance, or telling your mind that you know what it's doing and that the pain is not dangerous.

What I mean to say is, when the pain comes on do I :
1) Acknowledge it's presence but not feed into it with fear or worry, and just continue whatever it is I may be doing without any worry of danger.
2) Start to think psychologically and explore emotional components in the moment or emotional components that may have occurred in the day to have caused physical symptoms.
3) A combination of both where I take a second to scan and be aware of any emotional components and then get on with whatever it is I may be doing.

I'm also guessing that sometimes the pain comes on as a conditioned response so it may not always be related to some emotional component?

Also I'm assuming there is some amount of a transitional period where you may be getting pain, but the pain could just possibly be pain due to your brain being in it's old neural pathways that it knows so well. And to fully eliminate pain requires time and patience for your brain to get rid of the old ways of thinking and create new pathways. Which after this 'transition period' where you have to be more introspective and aware, these new pathways then become more of a second nature and come naturally to you in life.

 

Yep. In fact, by the time most people get here that would be the majority of it. That is one of the hardest things for the ego to digest..in spite of its high opinion of itself, we are just as conditionable as Skinners' rats or Pavlovs' dogs....Actually even easier because we tend to react with anxiety and ratchet up stuff with emotion.

In fact, going back to your last question, this is where the rubber meets the road with THINKING. When the symptom is grabbing my attention, I 'think' stuff like "Hmmm...I wonder what I am afraid of now? When did I first notice this? What was going on that I was ignoring or unaware of in my emotional realm?"

sometimes there's an answer, sometimes not, but the most important thing is the questions we ask ourselves

every time we think like that we are BREAKING the conditioning and getting better.

 

This is a phenomenal thread! Thanks for this discussion! I’m riveted!

Here’s my problem. I missed the early discovery of a really huge issue (my sister). In fact, it was brewing for years before the big symptoms that I have now hit. Now, trying to fix it is bringing up symptoms like nobody’s business. The more I think about these feelings, the worse it’s getting. Am I going to come to a breakthrough at some point? Last night I got a brand new symptom! ALL my teeth hurt like I just had them drilled with no novocaine. It literally made me laugh. I thought: “Wow, I’m getting somewhere. You’re really desperate now, TMS brain!”

 

By this line do you mean that particular day or moment in the day of when you felt the pain coming on?
Or are you referring to when the pain had begun, right in the beginning, the first time you ever felt that kind of pain?

 

I think you’re right about this!

 

Jan, what do we need to get to this vulnerable place? Just realize it? Or do we need to journal it? Or does sharing it with someone else help?

 

Hahaha yea you go!! @Diana-M
I absolutely love this feeling when it happens! When you catch it red handed, feels so good.
I love the idea in TMS that fear and pain are opportunities for you face those feelings and learn more about yourself.
I remember so clearly reading about fear in Dr Alan's program and then promptly sitting down for 3 hours to read a book after. The disbelief and joy was quite something. Good times.

 

Curiosity vs fix
When @Baseball65 talks about his amazingly descriptive way of turning to the psychological it’s with curiosity. He’s not dissecting and analyzing, judging or fixing anything.
When we overthink we are on a hamster wheel of cud chewing: fixing, analyzing, judging, fantasizing, imagining, often leading to rumination or worry… and you just have to separate yourself from it and see how meaningless it is.

 

It is my experience and understanding that one does not have to "fix" an issue to recover from TMS. It is the conscious awareness of the psychological dynamics at play that provides the symptom relief--the pulling back of the curtain so to speak. I think you haven't yet gotten to the core issue here. Maybe it's that you still see yourself as a victim of your sister. What is your role in the dynamic?

Interested in others thoughts on this.

 

Thanks, @Ellen. So kind of you to stick with me while I wallow in this thing. Me too, would love to hear what you all think. Thank you so much!

I will say this: in therapy recently it came up how my Mom favored my sister and was very abusive to me. My sister keeps recreating it over the years by triangulating with various aunts, our step mother and now my daughter-in-law. In these arrangements, I’m the one left out or judged and my sister gloats over her victory while I pretend nothing is happening. (A victim?!!!!!!) I really need to write about THIS! You are right!

“Now, trying to fix it“— ie, get away from her. Make her go away. Tell everyone the new arrangement.

 

I think seeing ourselves as victims definitely contributes to TMS. We can't function as adults when we see ourselves as victims. We may have truly been victims as children, since as children we don't have the agency or maturity to deal with our situation. But if we still see ourselves as victims as adults, it is so dis-empowering that we can't function in the real world.

 

Blam!
I'd even go a step further and say, when we are unconscious about a situation and it is upsetting us (consciously or unconsciously) Our Universe conspires to 'fix it'...If I can't change you (conflict) then the UN conscious gives us a symptom(TMS)...or a combo. Something's gonna /gotta give somewhere. I can lie to myself, but Nature and gravity are conspiring against me.

Bad relationships, Tasks and jobs that suck, and Social ideals and standards that are dumb. Those are the big 3 for me.

IF we become as aware of them as we can stand, Like Diana with her sister, we don't need to change anything other than our decisions about how to proceed in the future...remember, today's choice/work/decision stops tomorrows TMS.

As long as I stay Mindful of what I have learned, I can go anywhere , do any job, exist in any group.

But, I might just stop hanging out with that person, doing that job or Being in that environment. Not out of fear of TMS...now I am starting to know what I am made of and "I just don't care for that________" (fill in blank)

 

I hadn’t really thought of— until today—that I have been secretly wanting to change her. That’s actually the Conflict. That’s my problem.

Love this! I get it!

Quotable! And inspiring. Thanks!!!