Six Things To Practice During 2014: Addictions To The Past

We  are living in an age of re-educating ourselves.  Which is  the main reason I began this Blog.   With knowledge comes understanding, and with understanding comes healing. 

Over the next 6 weeks I will be covering Six Things To Practice During 2014.  But before going into all that, I believe it important that we come into an understanding as to why we dwell on the past.  And too, how it effects the brain and subsequently creates an addiction that leads to other outside addictive behaviors.     

Dwelling on the past is, for many, an addiction.     But unlike the other types of addictions we know about, such as drugs, alcohol, sex, gambling and so on,  our addiction to the past is still pretty much seen as a harmful past-time.  After doing some research on the matter, it is clear that Medical Science is working diligently to connect emotional dis-ease with outside physical ailments.  

Following is just a few examples.  And as with anything you find on this Blog, I ask that you take what rings true for you, and simply leave the rest!

Namaste!

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My mother spent over 90% of her life dwelling on the past.   Nearly every conversation with her would be about something that happened to her years prior.  Most of the events took place long before I was even born.  And many of the people she spoke of were complete strangers to me.  But that didn't stop her from recounting specifics of situations that took place 40, 50 and 60 years ago, giving you the time, date and weather conditions!  A  I shit you not!     

Interestingly enough, whenever anyone asked my mother what she did the day before, her mind would go blank!    

Even though she could recall certain current situations, my mother would always (and I mean always) find a way to integrate past events into it!  It was if she was stuck on this damn never ending loop.  No matter how hard you would try to keep her focused on the present, she would just go right back to something that happened to her in the past.   Granted, some of the things that happened were pretty traumatic.  But she had happy times too.  Sadly, she chose to focus more on the bad than the good.   And sadder still, not only did her habitual trips to the past make her unbearable to be around, it also forced her into several psychotic break downs.  It was heartbreaking to know that her unwillingness to fully live in the present prevented her from enjoying life.   

  

Unfortunately, my mother’s nasty little habit of dwelling on the past is not some isolated anomaly.    For a vast number of people, dwelling on the past is a life-time commitment. 

Some who have studied the human condition have concluded that dwelling on the past could be signs of addiction.     

The chemicals triggered in your brain, like any substance abuse, when used for the wrong purpose and over-used, the effects can be, and are, devastating and debilitating.  In many cases, it can also create physical ailments like heart disease, and ultimately…death.

The following are a few examples of such addictions:

Emotional addiction:  needing sympathy and/or attention.  A need to feel alive.  Fear of being hurt or fear of constant danger.  And in more extreme cases, addiction to pain. 

  

Chemicals in the brain that are triggered:  Adrenaline and cortisol.   Reliving certain situations increases adrenaline.  (And yes, there are adrenaline junkies!)    Cortisol governs fear; its primary purpose is to help us avoid hurtful situations and danger.   

Emotional addiction:   can also mean the need to recapture those feelings of security, confidence, comfort and love.  

Chemicals in the brain that are triggered:  Endorphins, dopamine, Serotonin, Oxytocin

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Six Signs You Suffer from an Addiction to the Past
1. You Constantly Talk About the Past and the Way Things Used to Be
2. You Resist Change
3. You Continually Fail to Plan for a Better Future
4. You Argue for the Past that Things Used to Be Better
5. You've allowed Relationships to Become Stale, Uninteresting and Without Passion
6. You have physically or mentally peaked

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So why do we dwell on the past so much?  Rehashing over and over in our minds what we could have /should have said and done?   Reliving memories that are, for the most part, painful and emotionally damaging?  

We’ll cover these questions in the next article.

Sources:  

Psychology Today 

Huffington Post Healthy Living