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Irish Sammie
07-15-2014, 10:37 AM
I used to, and in some cases I still do. I stumbled across this article today and I found it very interesting with it's relevancy to anxiety. In response to a part of the article as to why people see hallucinations when sensory deprived, it states...

"Why does the perceptually deprived brain play such tricks? Cognitive psychologists believe that the part of the brain that deals with ongoing tasks, such as sensory perception, is accustomed to dealing with a large quantity of information, such as visual, auditory and other environmental cues. But when there is a dearth of information, says Robbins, “the various nerve systems feeding in to the brain’s central processor are still firing off, but in a way that doesn’t make sense. So after a while the brain starts to make sense of them, to make them into a pattern.” It creates whole images out of partial ones. In other words, it tries to construct a reality from the scant signals available to it, yet it ends up building a fantasy world." http://www.bbc.com/future/story/20130913-why-we-hate-hearing-our-own-voice

I found this quite interesting as I believe, over time, the longer you're away from human contact even though you may prefer the company of one's self, it slowly but surely is deteriorating your mind's constitution. Many of the tests featured in the article were done over one or two days, and the results were alarming. Now, if you compare that to someone who likes to be alone and away from noise and busy situations with minimal stimulation, I can see how that would eventually conjure up the growth of anxiety.

On personal reflection, I often did spend a lot of time by myself because I was often scared and felt uncomfortable engaging with people on nights out as I had very low self esteem. I preferred the entertainment one could get whilst alone, whether that's design (which I do), reading, TV, movies, gaming etc. I just found the correlation quite interesting.

Thoughts?

Exactice
07-15-2014, 03:19 PM
Hey Sammie, Its been a while, I hope all in all you are doing better. My thoughts. I really really enjoy the company of others. More so I am not afraid to share my thoughts/issues with other. I found this to be the greatest assets to my PTSD recovery. During that period many soldiers are afraid to share there thoughts and problems. More so it feels like a sign of weakness, which is absolutely false!

The doc taught me its best to let things go and talk it out with people! A lot of our fear to spending time with people is because we are fearful of how they will judge you. This is probably one of the biggest challenges we all need to face and move past.

I found it beneficial to my recovery. So start with family or very close friends, then slowly move to newer unfamiliar people but reach out and dont be afraid to share your feelings and thoughts, you would be surprised to find that many people are dealing with similar situations! Just like this forums!!!!!

Irish Sammie
07-15-2014, 05:51 PM
Hey buddy!

It's good to hear from you. I honestly don't know how I am at the moment as I've been going through phases of intense eye/head strain lately and I'm feeling a bit off balance too, but I can just put that down to another symptom to overcome. Most of my adult life I always found more comfort in being with myself. It's a good thing to be comfortable in your own company, however too much of it can lead to a social deprivation which I honestly think has attributed to my current anxiety situation. From perhaps January to the end of March this year, I spent a lot of time with myself as It was just after my first panic attack. Those three months allowed my mind to put up huge barriers and reinforce an internal protection mechanism that I now believe has contributed to my highly sensitized state.

Admittingly, I actually would only prefer to go out during the night time (I was able to work from home) so for weeks at a time, I only left the house at night time as it felt more safe. I also think that in itself has also contributed to my highly sensitized vision which is still the bane of my problems, but I know that persistence pays so I have to keep on truckin! ;)