Repetitive Unpleasant Thoughts (RUTs) are a problem with being human. Although many people are not bothered much by them, others have a difficult time, and they markedly interfere with their quality of life. At some tipping point they can be severe enough to compromise the ability to function. The term for this extreme form is obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD).
You can’t outrun your mind
Although physical pain elicits and automatic avoidance or withdrawal response, there is no refuge from mental pain, which is processed in similar brain circuits. We only know to suppress them, which makes them even worse. The brain perceives these thoughts to be a threat and fires up the fight or flight response. A sustained threat physiology is the basis of chronic mental and physical disease.
It is my opinion that RUTs may be the most significant force in driving chronic mental and physical disease. Unpleasant thoughts are sensory input and emotions are the physiological reaction. They are solvable using research-based approaches. Possibly the one most overlooked factor in dealing with obsessive thought patterns is addressing the threat physiology component.
This section of the healing journey is focused on solving RUTs (Repetitive Unpleasant Thoughts). The learning sequence first focuses on solutions and then on the background as to why and how these disruptive thought patterns are so common. You can’t “fix” them or do battle with them. You must move through and rise abovethem.
Introduction – What Happens Behind Closed Doors
Section 1 – Overview of RUTs
Chapter 1 – RUTs – Defining the Problem
Section 2 – Solving RUTs
Chapter 2 – Separating Your Identity from Your Physiology
Chapter 3 – Four Aspects of Solving RUTs
Chapter 4 – Thought Diversion
Chapter 5 – “Turn Down the Heat” – Anger
Chapter 6 – Nurturing Creativity
Chapter 7 – Dissolution of Ego
Section 3 – The Evolution of RUTs
Chapter 8 – The Need for Mental Control – The “Ironic Effect”
Chapter 9 – We are brainwashed by our life experiences
Chapter 10 – The Physiology/ Mental Mechanics
Section 4 – Consequences of RUTs
Chapter 11 – Clinical Manifestations/ illnesses/ Diseases
Chapter 12 – Behaviors Driven by RUTs
Chapter 13 – Punishment Can’t and Won’t Stop Destructive Behaviors
Section 5 – Healing Principles
Chapter 14 – Addressing RUTs
Chapter 15 – Become a Professional at Living Life
Chapter 16 – “Letting Go” – Freedom from Mental and Physical Pain
This section on RUTs has been carved out of all of my materials including The DOC Journey course and app, Back in Control: A Surgeon’s Roadmap Out of Chronic Pain, Psychology Today blogs, and the backincontrol.com website. For many of you, this section will provide enough information to heal, and others will need to take a deep dive into either the course/ app, or considerother approaches.
There is little time spent looking backwards into your past traumas. You are actually reinforcing these neurological circuits. The focus is learning the skills to process adversity and shift onto circuits that are more functional and enjoyable. Many people have healed using these principles and the outcomes are consistent with engagement and repetition. Welcome to your new nervous system and life.
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RUTs - Defining the Problem
Objectives: Unpleasant thoughts are impossible to avoid and can significantly impact your quality of life. They are a “neurological trick” created by your unconscious brain. They are not subject to rational interventions. The root cause of the problem is the ...
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Objectives There are many different physical and mental symptoms that are possible when you are in sustained flight or fight physiology. At my lowest point, I was experiencing 17 of them. No one could tell me what was happening despite ...
Separating Your Identity from Your Physiology
Objectives: Since the body’s response to threats affects every cell in your body, it feels like part of who you are. We spend a lot of time attempting to avoid this intentionally unpleasant sensation when it is necessary for life ...
Four Aspects of Solving RUTs
Objectives Mental and physical pain are processed in similar regions of the brain. Our inability to escape from RUT’s relentlessly drives flight or fight physiology, and people may become ill. There is a healing sequence to solve them – separation ...
Objectives Repetitive Unpleasant Thoughts (RUTs) are solvable with a multi-pronged self-directed approach. Consider the four aspects in the metaphor of a popcorn machine. They are 1) the kernels 2) the cooking pot 3) the storage compartment 4) the power source ...
Thought Diversion
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After you have become comfortable with writing down and immediately destroying your thoughts, the next phase involves the “three-column technique that Dr. David Burns outlines in his book, Feeling Good. It provides an excellent format in which to apply the principles ...
A basic tenet of many Eastern philosophies is that worrying about the future and thinking about the past causes internal unrest. There is anxiety around the future and many regrets and frustrations about the past. By staying only in the ...
Expressive Writing Pamphlet
“Turn Down the Heat” – Anger
Objectives Processing anger is more doable if it is broken down into its components. Anger is a powerful, necessary, and hard wired survival reflex. You cannot tame it with the conscious brain. It is an acquired skill that requires ongoing ...
Your capacity to enjoy your life, feel safe and content is dependent on your body’s neurochemical profile. When you are stressed you don’t feel good. There are methods to regulate your body’s stress reaction and inflammatory response. The gift of ...
Objectives Anxiety is an unpleasant sensation generated by your body’s physiological response to real or perceived danger. It compels you to take action to resolve the threat and live another day. If you cannot escape or solve the threat, your ...
Nurturing Creativity
Objectives We are trained that if we can solve enough of our problems, we’ll have an “enjoyable life.” Life’s challenges never stop, and we may slowly sink into darkness, “The Abyss.” We become desperate trying to escape; especially from our ...
Dissolution of Ego
The Need for Mental Control – The “Ironic Effect”
The Seed of Our Undoing
It is critical to understand how deeply negative anxiety-producing thoughts are etched into your nervous system. A 1987 Harvard experiment (1) documented that when you suppress unpleasant thoughts, they become more powerful. Unfortunately, they documented a trampoline effect in that they ...
We are brainwashed by our life experiences
The only “authentic self” that exists is the one who is present today – right this very second. Your actions and reactions reflect your entire lifetime of programming. Much of our programming is less than ideal but it is what ...
Every second of your life depends on your brain scanning your surroundings for trouble. This unconscious process guides your behavior so as to avoid danger and maximize your chances of survival. You will become conscious of this ongoing interaction with ...
The Physiology / Mental Mechanics
Lesson Objectives Consider ongoing environmental input separately from your body’s responses. Understand the essence of illness/ disease is sustained exposure to real or perceived threats. It creates an adverse chemical profile that increases metabolism (your rate of fuel consumption) and ...
Objectives: Understanding the nature of chronic disease and the principles behind the solutions, allows you to fully engage in your care. Characteristics that keep us alive are what also create disease states. Chronic pain is a neurological diagnosis that has ...
Objectives: Pain from any body part is a protective danger signal that guides our behavior and physical responses to avoid danger and remain safe. This system is called the nociceptive system, which guides behaviors to not exceed the limits of ...
Clinical Manifestations / illnesses/ Diseases
Neil Hilborn – “OCD” Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD) is an extreme of form of anxiety. It is characterized by a relentless assault of unwelcome intrusive thoughts. I suffered from OCD for several decades well before I knew what OCD meant ...
Bullying bothers me–a lot. When I was in middle school and high school, I was very fortunate in that I was not a target of bullying. However, I have watched dozens of friends and family come under attack from bullies ...
Objectives Many people are focused on controlling anger and anxiety with behavioural approaches. These powerful reactions are not controllable and suppressing them increases threat physiology. We all need to be heard, supported, and taught methods to regulate and lower these ...
Behaviors Driven by RUTs
Bullying bothers me–a lot. When I was in middle school and high school, I was very fortunate in that I was not a target of bullying. However, I have watched dozens of friends and family come under attack from bullies ...
Punishment Can’t and Won’t Stop Destructive Behaviors
Objectives Many people are focused on controlling anger and anxiety with behavioural approaches. These powerful reactions are not controllable and suppressing them increases threat physiology. We all need to be heard, supported, and taught methods to regulate and lower these ...
Addressing RUTs
Objectives Connecting to every aspect of your life is difficult but is at the core of allowing your body to heal. “Being” with your past may be challenging but is necessary in order to learn and grow. It is the ...
The only “authentic self” that exists is the one who is present today – right this very second. Your actions and reactions reflect your entire lifetime of programming. Much of our programming is less than ideal but it is what ...
Becoming a Professional at Living Life
Feeling safe is the essence of enjoying life, healing, and thriving Healing chronic illness happens by moving towards health not by “fixing” yourself. An analogy can be made to becoming a professional baseball player. The goal is to be “safe” ...
I always wanted to play golf at a level where I could consistently shoot in the 70’s. I began to play when I was 14 but I never took lessons and didn’t practice much. Then in college I subscribed to ...
Objectives Learning any new material or skill is an active process than can only be acquired through repetition. There are few people with a photographic memory and even they need repetition to embed a skill. Living your life in the ...
“Letting Go” – Freedom from Mental and Physical Pain
My migraine headaches began on the Fourth of July when I was five years old. By age fifty, I had over fifteen physical and mental symptoms from being in a state of sustained threat physiology. They became extreme and intolerable ...
Much, if not most, of what the DOC project presents about creating a central nervous shift is 180 degrees different than how most of us are taught to deal with our conscious mind. One of the most important paradoxes to ...
