PTSD & Thought Addiction: Powerful Relationship

"Thought Addiction is a real addiction and its power can devastate your life."

Do things happen in the present which causes you to be triggered into a flashback of a past traumatic experience(s)? 

Do you find yourself unable to get free from the residual self-judging and negative thoughts that go along the with PTSD? 

If your answer is "yes" to either or both then read on.

Trapped in the Past?

After having a traumatic flashback episode it seems as though you become trapped within a negative thought pattern or a constant disturbing thought loop. Seems you never connect the two together. The flashback and the thought looping. That is very common with survivors of abuse and trauma.

Negative Thoughts Your Inner Voice

The aftereffect of a  PTSD episode for many survivors is the influx strong negative intrusive thoughts. The resulting influx of thoughts is a consequence of surfacing buried core beliefs from your subconscious. These afterthoughts such as “It was my fault”, "I caused it to happen”, “I do not deserve better”, "I should be punished" or “I am not worthy of anything better” invades your mind.

Mental Havoc Abounds

Traumatic thought or set of thoughts can wreak havoc on every aspect of your life. These types of thoughts originate from embedded core beliefs that form at the time of the traumatic event and quickly surface due to the triggering effect of the flashback. These thoughts can also produce a re-traumatization on top of the primary trauma memory, adding a secondary PTSD symptoms. The thought can remain prominent in your daily thoughts for months. Traumatic thoughts can disrupt your functioning and cause you to isolate and withdraw. You can become addicted to a thought or set of thoughts called thought addiction (TA). TA can spiral you into other addictions as an attempt of trying to quiet your mind and stop the thoughts from always looping.

On one hand, the looping thoughts cause you to self-limit and sabotage yourself as well as self-defeating thoughts set in. On the other hand, constant looping thought to get you out of your body and numbs out your emotions kicked up from the experienced flashback. The more you concentrate on a thought it is for an emotion to break through. Soon control is lost and the thought takes over. The more one attempts ignore the thought or thoughts the more you focus on them the stronger they become.

An example is when you attempt to ignore a thought, the more you think of it the more intense it becomes and harder it is to stop it. Another everyday example is when a song gets stuck in your head, the more you attempt to stop it the more it plays.

Takeaway

Why hold on to a negative thought or set of thoughts that do not serve you at all? There is hope in unblocking a thought addiction, regain clarity of thought and power of positive thinking. 

Click o this link to take an assessment to find out if you have a thought addiction.

For more information click on this link: Unblocking a Thought Addiction. It is time to make a positive change in your life.

           Coach Bill