Quote from: Joey. on October 05, 2013, 08:00:37 PM
Thanks everyone. I'm just in a bad way at the moment.
It's a lot quieter, but it isn't happy for me. It tells me I don't deserve it and that things are always going to get bad again so there's no point being happy. It's a vicious circle.
That's just it, Joey. It's just a vicious circle. And as long as you keep going around in that circle it will keep getting your head in a spin. This voice, I think that at one time it appeared to protect you from something. That's often the case, you know. Something really bad happens to you and your mind sort of creates a self defense mechanism in the form of this sort of internal critic. Maybe someone hurt you, or you really wanted something and tried so hard for it, but for whatever reason it didn't happen. I can't say for sure because I don't know your past. But that's certainly what happened to me.
Anyway, the point is, this voice appears to try and stop you feeling hurt again. It's actually a really dumb way for the mind to act, since it doesn't realise that it's actually doing far more damage than it's trying to prevent, but nevertheless, the point of it is to stop you from getting your hopes up so you'll never be hurt again. In a perverse way it's looking out for you, or itself, or something. Kind of like the old saying "if you don't get your hopes up, you'll never be disappointed".
Like you said though, when something good
does happen to you, then this voice is a lot quieter. I mean basically what it's telling you is wrong, so it's hardly going to shout about it. So it goes on to grumble in the background.
Think of it like an overprotective parent. You know, the kind that's all "Yeah, go on, do it. You won't like it. You'll be back. I know best. I know what's best for you."
The thing about that is, just like an overprotective parent, it has this image of you as you were in the
exact moment whatever it was happened which caused it to appear. The same vulnerable, hurt, scared person. And the trouble is, that image got out of date very soon after. But your inner voice doesn't know that. It still thinks you need protecting from yourself. It still thinks you need to feel like it's not worth trying, or striving for things because you'll just end up back in that state again.
The way to start getting it to STFU is to start thinking about all the good things that happened to you, the things that made you feel really awesome. The things that made that voice go quiet for just a little bit. Write them all down if you want to. And then, start taking little steps towards doing more of those things which make you feel good. Things you enjoy doing, things you're good at. I'm sure there's a bunch of stuff that you really enjoy doing, and that you're good at.
Once you start doing that, you'll find that voice starts getting quieter and quieter, as its whole argument becomes more and more invalid. Until, in the end, it just disappears one day in a sulk. And you can get on with being the awesome person you were always meant to be.