Those who have PTSD and those who don't all tend to agree that it is disadvantageous to have PTSD, but there are ways arguably, in which that is not entirely the case. In PTSD the primary problem is the overactive and poorly filtered "lizard brain" which causes our extreme and prolonged reactivity, and our delayed processing. We have learned how to recognize and manage this particular problem more or less well. We have learned to question our brains when they tell us things that upon greater reflection seem inaccurate and counter productive. So it shouldn't be as great a leap for us to learn to also question our minds when they tell us things that are contrary to our true inner selves.

Our minds are simply like biological machines. And, like machines they just run. They can and do function without any direction or bidding on our part. What they do is think. By "think" I mean that they take in data, process data, interpret data and produce conclusions from that data. They have been doing these functions since the beginning of our physical existence. Consequently they have taken in a lot of data and they automatically use all of this data to reach their conclusions. In PTSD our minds have more bad data to work with and consequently give us more bad conclusions. But Normies have the same problems with their minds that we do. Just like our minds, their minds tend to repeat mistakes, over interpret, distort perceptions and otherwise produce less than optimal conclusions.

Just as our lizard brains produce reactions that we don't really think, our minds produce interpretations that we don't really choose. We have learned to question our reactivity and our lives have improved. Now I want us to learn to question our conclusions and watch our lives improve even more. There are many steps to doing this and we will discuss those in later sessions. The key to questioning our conclusions is to recognize that our mind is not our essence. Our essence is something separate and more central. It is our being, our self, our soul if you will, or whatever other term fits for you. I will simply refer to it as the "self".

What is important to realize is that our minds are constantly putting up interpretations and that what we react to emotionally are these interpretations. That is to say that our reactions are not specifically to the facts. We don't react directly to whatever happens to us or around us but rather to the interpretations our minds throw up about those events. Perhaps an example would be helpful here.

When I was a senior at Medford Senior High School in 1958, we had an exceptionally good football team. One night after winning a particularly significant home game, everyone rushed onto the field. It was chaos with people hugging and congratulating each other and other people pushing through the crowd to find their friends. All of a sudden I was tackled from behind. My lizard brain signaled that I was under attack and went into a fight-flight stress reaction. My adrenalin was pumping even more than it already had been from the excitement of the game and the subsequent mayhem. I turned to find my girlfriend, Pam, my high school sweetheart and the love of my life, had been the one who in her excitement had thrown herself at me. I was furious and I proceeded to spoil the rest of our evening. My mind had thrown up the interpretation that she was not considerate of my feelings and didn't respect me. How differently this evening could have gone if I had just accepted the unbridled love and enthusiasm in her gesture.

We really do need to reign in our minds and not let them do these things to us.

Desired Outcome:
To begin to distinguish between our mind and our self and to use this distinction to help us make choices that are more in our self-interest and to not always do what our minds cue us to do

Discussion Starters:

• Can we see that our mind tells us things that are based on it's automatic processing that are not necessarily what we want?

• Can we see that our emotions are primarily reactions to interpretations that our mind makes and not necessary outcomes based just on the facts? The difference between Captain Kirk and Mr. Spock.

• Can we learn to tell our minds, "Thanks but no thanks"?
   

John C Flanagan, LCSW
818 NW 17th Avenue, Suite 7
Portland, OR 97209-2327
503-228-7574
www.johncflanaganlcsw.com

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