Mind Chatter

[MAM090982]

Does anyone get mind chatter? Repetitive thoughts that just pop into your head for no reason? Why does this happen? It causes me panic and then throws off my whole day in fear that I am going crazy. Can anyone relate? The thoughts can be so random, and then they repeat. :(

[Ryker]

Hi,

Yes, I can get that. When I was at my worst it'd be so much noise and chatter that I'd just be exhausted all the time.

The brain works naturally by creating phonetic loops to act like a loop of recording tape. That allows you to hold a complex idea or sentence in your head and then process it in stages as it goes round and round. It works but causes a few unexpected side-effects.

As you said, the thoughts cause panic and the panic fuels the thoughts which causes more panic .... and so on. You need to step in and break that cycle. If you learn some meditation techniques or use chanting, music or poetry or relaxation imagery you can calm the thoughts.

By practicing mindfulness and relaxation you can stop the thoughts turning into panic and the panic turning back into thoughts.

Stamp on it and you'll feel much better. Be tough on thoughts and tough on the causes of thoughts!

[gypsylee]

Does anyone get mind chatter? Repetitive thoughts that just pop into your head for no reason? Why does this happen? It causes me panic and then throws off my whole day in fear that I am going crazy. Can anyone relate? The thoughts can be so random, and then they repeat. :(

When I'm at my worst I get this when I'm half asleep.. I'll be lying there trying to dose off and I get random thoughts which all trigger a rush of adrenaline no matter what they are. It's absolutely terrible. It doesn't literally send you crazy but you feel like you are.

I learnt that deep breathing exercises help a lot with this kind of thing. They let the nervous system know that it can relax and stop being on high alert all the time. When it's revved up it dumps stress hormones in your bloodstream and your mind goes into a strange sort of overdrive. Google "diaphragmatic breathing" and practice that (it can be hard at first if you're anxious). Physical exercise helps as well, plus certain vitamins and herbs that support the nervous system. Avoid anything that hypes it up like alcohol and caffeine.

It helps just to understand what's going on because we tend to think we're doing it to ourselves and will just end up driving ourselves crazy. But there's a large physical component to it which we have control over. I wish I had've learnt this years ago instead of taking copious amounts of psych meds.

All the best :)
Gypsy

[jessed03]

Yes, practice mindfulness. Sooner or later they will disappear.

[MAM090982]

Why did it come on all of a sudden? I never had it before. I wonder if severe trauma can start it? It is very exhausting. The way you described it Ryker, is like a doctor. Are you a doctor? :) Thank you for the great advice. I am going to try not to panic, and work through it. Does yours still come and go? When do you notice it most?

[MAM090982]

Gypsylee, I notice mine, the most, when I am trying to fall asleep as well. I get random thoughts, songs, images, phrases. Do you? I don't drink alcohol or caffeine at all, so it scares me that this is happening, like I am going crazy. :( This is my fear, is that I will have to go on meds, again, and I don't want to. I have been dealing with my anxiety, naturally, tough, but doing it, and then this started happening, in September. :(

[MAM090982]

Jessed03, yours came, and left for good? It never creeps in?

[Im-Suffering]

Jessed03, yours came, and left for good? It never creeps in?

You are entitled to be selective in what you choose to listen to. Your mind is sensitive, the problem is not the chatter but your insistence to file each in an appropriate folder.

Exercise:

Label your minds files, and picture the junk files or spam being moved into the recycle bin, and then empty it. Keep the thoughts you wish and prepare the appropriate folders for storage of those thoughts you will act on later or maybe not at all. You play a game with your thoughts then.

The contents of your mind are at your disposal, you are not being invaded. You are attracting thoughts like a receiving unit, or a television receiving its channels. Your mind is haphazard and not clear so the thoughts follow suit. The clearer your intent the less intrusion of foreign nature you receive. It only seems foreign because you feel powerless and separate from the process. You are like a television without a knob, receiving overlapping stations all at once. No wonder the confusion and worry. You need to buy a knob !

How could you fear yourself?

Now the above analogies will help you in pretending as a game your mind is a computer. Or a TV, or a combination. Before bed as the mind prepares for sleep, the defenses drop and telepathic suggestions flow in matching your current mental state. If you believe you are crazy then indeed you are. And the seemingly disconnected haphazard thought patterns will corroborate that belief. However believing you are sane will minimize the disjointed thought and allow you to make sense of them in ways described such as the computer analogy.

Activate virus protection against unwanted spam and malware, select your files and decide what to do with them. Pretend your computer is well defended.

When you do a Google search you pull up 1 million responses of which you select one or two to focus upon. You would not expect Google to just return one response. Therefor you have choices, period. Sending out unconscious queries you can be selective in which to own.

Now, playing this game and believing you are in control will help to regain a sense of identity. in fearing a thought you may as well fear a Google query. You see. All that is needed is to turn the computer off.

[Ryker]

Why did it come on all of a sudden? I never had it before. I wonder if severe trauma can start it? It is very exhausting. The way you described it Ryker, is like a doctor. Are you a doctor? :) Thank you for the great advice. I am going to try not to panic, and work through it. Does yours still come and go? When do you notice it most?

It hasn't come on all of a sudden. Your brain processes all manner of stuff all the time. It's that you've just become aware of it.
There's something called the 'cocktail party effect'. You'll be aware that you can be in a room with many people , maybe in a conversation and you'll become instantly aware that someone somewhere else has said your name. You heard nothing else and weren't aware of that conversation until that point.

This tells you brains process information streams subconsciously in parallel and a mechanism alerts your conscious to messages of importance.

You also know at the party that you have the ability to 'tune in' to individual conversations within earshot. You can't process multiple conversations well at the same time though.

This tells you that you have some, if limited, conscious control over what you tune in to.

What's happening here is you're tuning in to some noise, turning it into something it's not, and interpreting it as important and that instantly brings it to the front of the queue.

To use I'm suffering's most excellent analogy you're not filing the information nicely you're running around like a mad thing picking up stuff at random and tossing it into the air.

No. Not a doctor but I do have degrees in psychology and biology.