RE 76: The Conscious and Unconscious Mind

Explicit content warning

08/01/16 • 55 min

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Simon, with 15 years of sobriety, shares how he did. Three years ago, Simon started the Hope Rehab Center in Thailand and has been helping people change transform their lives.

The Conscious and the unconscious mind. I recently read the book "This Naked Mind - Control Alcohol" by Annie Grace and the chapter covering the how the brain worked was fascinating.

Conscious: Aware of something, knowing that something exists or is happening.

Unconscious: The part of the mind a person is not aware of but is a powerful force in controlling behavior.

Consciousness: Being aware of something within oneself. The upper level of mental life that a person is aware of as contrasted with unconscious process.

Warning: This may blow your mind...

The unconscious mind is responsible for desires
Studies show, we have two separate thinking systems. The conscious mind, and the unconscious mind
When we want something to change in our life, we usually make a conscious decision. However, drinking is no longer a conscious decision.
The unconscious mind doesn’t get the memo
Unconscious learning happens automatically and unintentionally
We are conditioned to think drinking enhances our lives and makes us happy
This is why when we want to drink less, our unconscious mind tells us to drink more. Insert major dilemma here.
We have been conditioned to believe in alcohol. To believe that me and some random captain would make it happen.
The unconscious mind is not logical. It’s comprised of feelings, observations. It’s the source of love, jealousy, fear, kindness and sadness.
When a person makes a decision to quit drinking alcohol, their unconscious mind is never in on that conversation. Gary, pull up a chair.
Studies dating back to the 1970’s indicate our unconscious mind makes 1/3 of a second fast than our conscious mind.
The unconscious mind controls the emotions. When someone tells yourself to stop having a bad day, that never works. But over time, this positive reinforcement can work.
Liminal thinking, which we will get to in later podcast episodes, is how will cover how to converse with the unconscious mind.
The unconscious mind is formed by beliefs, conclusions, assumptions, experiences and observations. Often time, it is far separated from reality which is where the conscious mind lives.
Our culture of drinking makes everything better has been ingrained into our unconscious mind without us ever knowing. One easy way to challenge this, which we often never do, is look for external validity. For example, the bud light makes you a better beach volleyball player. Go to a beach and try to find a real life example if this. It won’t happen.
We let the unconscious mind determine our thinking because we like certainty. In the conscious mind, there is so much unknown and that is always scary. The unconscious mind is a bubble of safety where we feel comfortable.
Why did I find it so hard to quit drinking? Well, I knew I wouldn’t have a good time at a social event sober, I knew I wasn’t funny, I knew I wouldn’t be able to chat with girls. I never stood a chance at quitting drinking unless a pain point was strong enough, aka, the bottom.
We can address this by bringing unconscious experiences, observations, assumptions and conclusions, into conscious thought. We do this through knowledge.
Before we drank alcohol, we were happy joyous and free, we didn’t miss it.
The Author Terry Pratchett says, we need to be able to at any time, accept that fact that we all could be absolute and utterly wrong.

Don’t forget to support the Recovery Elevator Podcast by shopping at Amazon with the Recovery Elevator link:

www.recoveryelevator.com/amazon/

This episode was brought to you by Cafe RE and get your daily AA email here!

Simon, with 15 years of sobriety, shares how he did. Three years ago, Simon started the Hope Rehab Center in Thailand and has been helping people change transform their lives.

The Conscious and the unconscious mind. I recently read the book "This Naked Mind - Control Alcohol" by Annie Grace and the chapter covering the how the brain worked was fascinating.

Conscious: Aware of something, knowing that something exists or is happening.

Unconscious: The part of the mind a person is not aware of but is a powerful force in controlling behavior.

Consciousness: Being aware of something within oneself. The upper level of mental life that a person is aware of as contrasted with unconscious process.

Warning: This may blow your mind...

The unconscious mind is responsible for desires
Studies show, we have two separate thinking systems. The conscious mind, and the unconscious mind
When we want something to change in our life, we usually make a conscious decision. However, drinking is no longer a conscious decision.
The unconscious mind doesn’t get the memo
Unconscious learning happens automatically and unintentionally
We are conditioned to think drinking enhances our lives and makes us happy
This is why when we want to drink less, our unconscious mind tells us to drink more. Insert major dilemma here.
We have been conditioned to believe in alcohol. To believe that me and some random captain would make it happen.
The unconscious mind is not logical. It’s comprised of feelings, observations. It’s the source of love, jealousy, fear, kindness and sadness.
When a person makes a decision to quit drinking alcohol, their unconscious mind is never in on that conversation. Gary, pull up a chair.
Studies dating back to the 1970’s indicate our unconscious mind makes 1/3 of a second fast than our conscious mind.
The unconscious mind controls the emotions. When someone tells yourself to stop having a bad day, that never works. But over time, this positive reinforcement can work.
Liminal thinking, which we will get to in later podcast episodes, is how will cover how to converse with the unconscious mind.
The unconscious mind is formed by beliefs, conclusions, assumptions, experiences and observations. Often time, it is far separated from reality which is where the conscious mind lives.
Our culture of drinking makes everything better has been ingrained into our unconscious mind without us ever knowing. One easy way to challenge this, which we often never do, is look for external validity. For example, the bud light makes you a better beach volleyball player. Go to a beach and try to find a real life example if this. It won’t happen.
We let the unconscious mind determine our thinking because we like certainty. In the conscious mind, there is so much unknown and that is always scary. The unconscious mind is a bubble of safety where we feel comfortable.
Why did I find it so hard to quit drinking? Well, I knew I wouldn’t have a good time at a social event sober, I knew I wasn’t funny, I knew I wouldn’t be able to chat with girls. I never stood a chance at quitting drinking unless a pain point was strong enough, aka, the bottom.
We can address this by bringing unconscious experiences, observations, assumptions and conclusions, into conscious thought. We do this through knowledge.
Before we drank alcohol, we were happy joyous and free, we didn’t miss it.
The Author Terry Pratchett says, we need to be able to at any time, accept that fact that we all could be absolute and utterly wrong.

Don’t forget to support the Recovery Elevator Podcast by shopping at Amazon with the Recovery Elevator link:

www.recoveryelevator.com/amazon/

This episode was brought to you by Cafe RE and get your daily AA email here!

Previous Episode

RE 75: I'm Breaking Up With The Word Alcoholic

Paul, with 18.5 months of sobriety, shares how he did it. That's right, I'm breaking up with the word alcoholic and opting for a simpler less defining answer of I don't drink.

I got the idea for this podcast after reading the following article and I hope you like the show notes. As you can probably tell, I've had some recent help with show notes since mine leave much to still be desired.

COUNT ME OUT OF “RECOVERY NATION” - NEGATIVE SELF-IDENTITY IS THE CRUELEST STIGMA

(Stanton Peele: July 7th, 2016)

The labels “alcoholic”, “addicts”, and “in recovery” dehumanizes people, both for the person

themselves and their children.

-Influence contributor, Meghan Ralston, wrote in her article (I'm Breaking Up With the Word

Addict),

Agree - “Even in a chaotic stage of drug use, we are not “other.” We are women, we are someone's daughter, we continue to laugh, we continue to like jazz and cheeseburgers and comfy pajamas. We cry, we get so lonely, we hate sitting in traffic. Addiction can be wretched, no question, but we do not ever stop being human beings, even during the times in our lives when we are dependent on drugs.”

Disagree - “For many people, myself included, the word “addict” is incredibly harmful and offensive. You do not have my permission to call me an addict. You can of course refer to yourself as an addict, if you wish.”[1]

Don't refer to yourself as an “addict.”

-It's depressing

-No one should highlight/define themselves by their worst trait or period in

their life.

These concepts arose in conversation between Dr. Peele and Talk Recovery Radio:

“Dr. Stanton Peele was today’s thought provoking live guest on Talk Recovery.... our show is meant to be a platform where all pathways to recovery are welcomed to be discussed... But today, that almost didn’t happen. There was an 'us and them' feel to the show... Why do people feel the word addict is stigmatizing?”[2]

-Peele explains that the host seemed to feel that he was part of a movement

that set people recovering apart from everyone else.

-Culture seems to encourage this separation.

-public policies

-celebrities' confessionals

-treatment circles

-recovery high schools

-etc.

-Show host ironically wonders why there's a stigma towards addicts while he himself labels

himself as one.

Peele refuses to label himself by marching with Recovery Nation, a group that lets themselves be lead

by their labels.

-”Thinking of yourself as an alcoholic causes you to behave the way you think alcoholics

behave.”

-To quote Peele and Ilse Thompson,

“You are not your addiction; you are a valuable human being whose qualities endure and exceed your addiction. ... It’s impossible to expect a person to achieve wellness by focusing on his or her faults and mistakes. Perhaps this is why conventional recovery asserts that people must remain 'in recovery' forever and continue to identify themselves as addicts, no matter how long they are sober.”[3]

-Today people seem to expect labeling. Peele states,

“Imagine a child with a learning difficulty looking at you and saying, 'I am retarded,' or 'I am stupid.' We would cry and hug them and tell them that wasn’t true!”

-Peele goes on to pose the question of why it is that people always discourage each other from

identifying themselves by their problems or illnesses, except when it comes to addiction.

-While debating former head of treatment at Hazelden, Peele asked how he short-circuited his family

heritage.

-While the clinician had a cynically humorous answer, Peele gave his answer for the man to the

radio show hosts. The method to preventing his children from taking on addictive traits was to

raise them in emotionally and financially stable home, encourage them, provide for them, and

allow them to be who they want to be.

-What doesn't help children, is to burden them with the “destiny” that they would most likely be

an alcoholic.

-The “tough love” approach often comes in too late, Peele says.

-Before a child can misbehave during drug use, you ought to instill him with morals of

responsibility to themselves and others.

...

Next Episode

RE 77: I Would Have Missed This

Westin, with over 3 years of sobriety shares how he did it. Some of my best memories are those of camping with my family in Southern Utah. Camping growing up used to consist of fishing, catching lizards and snakes, watching the sunrise and sunsets.

It was a simple and joyous time that I spent with my family. These are fond memories. But, somewhere along the line, my camping experiences diminished, the joy of spending time in nature was replaced with Hot Dogs, Booze and Passing Out.

Last weekend, I was camping with Ben (my partner in crime, my four-footed friend), we had called it a night and crawled into the back of my truck in the woods of Montana. Now, these are real woods, mountain lions, grizzlies, etc. Nature is not to be taken for granted around here. Suddenly, around 2am, I awoke to Ben’s perked ears and sounds of snapping branches. The sounds grew louder as whatever was roaming the woods got closer... I reached for my headlamp... And...

GOATS! Rocky Mountain Goats, a herd of them... Now, if I had been camping with Hot Dogs and Booze I would have been PASSED OUT (probably face down in a pile of biting red ants at that!) and would never have experienced this beauty, this joy. The Goats brought me out of the truck where I was then able to see the expansiveness of the sky and the stars and experience the cooling sensations of the pine trees. Nothing needed to change. I didn’t need to drink a Keystone Light or 50 of them...

I am now getting back my memories and creating new memories that are more than just a party. Memories such as this that fill me up with satisfaction, connection, and awe.

AND NOW... onto the podcast!

SHOW NOTES

Paul Introduces Westin

Westin is from Indianapolis, Indiana. He is 33, has been married for 7 years, and has an amazing little girl who is turning 4 in September. “She is the most important thing in my life alongside my sobriety.” Westin works at an addiction treatment center as a “Recovery Coach.”

How long have you been sober?

Westin has been sober for 2 years and 363 days, he is 2 days away from 3 years of sobriety! “Right now I’m in a place where I have to count days again. I’m in a weird place where I just have to count.” says Westin on his sobriety.

When did you realize it was time to quit drinking?

“My bottom was 3 years ago almost to the date. I woke up face down on my Mom’s couch, not knowing how I got there, and not knowing what happened over the past 24 hours. I was highly addicted to Klonopin and drinking on top of them. I looked up from the couch and just saw this look of utter disappointment on my Mom’s face. It was different. I had unknowingly gone through her medicine cabinet the night before, and found all sorts of pills in my pockets.”

What were your drinking habits?

“I was a blackout drinker from the age of 17. I was never trying to control it, I thought it was normal. I was proud of the amount of alcohol I could consume...” “But, I was physically addicted to it... Always struggling with anxiety and shaking. I couldn’t function without that first drink, and then the pills took over.”

What does it mean, when you’re back to counting the days?

In the early days of sobriety Westin was counting: 30 days, 60 days, 90 days, 1-year sober... Getting those next tokens, proving to himself that he could do this. “I needed the external motivation. From 2-years sober to just now I didn’t count, I didn’t need to, but now, I’m back to counting the individual days. I’ve been referencing my sobriety tracker, and just trying to get through each day. It’s not a comfortable feeling.”

The whole ‘God’ word in AA. That one word kept you from getting sober... Expand on that.

Westin discusses his “religious” philosophy and how he made AA work as an agnostic. Westin had been agnostic (without knowledge, an individual who does not claim to say whether God exists or does not exist) most of his life. AA taught Westin to own his agnosticism, his belief system. “I’m now more comfortable being honest and open with who I am, and AA taught me this. I found a way to make my beliefs, or lack thereof, work within the framework of AA.” The gift of desperation allowed Westin to take what works and leave the rest...

How did you do it? (on getting sober)

Westin went to a treatment center, Fairbanks Hospital in Indianapolis. “I looked at my wife and said, I think I need some help with this.”... “We tried to do a walk in, but like a good addict I had just finished the rest of my klonopin refill (half of the prescription), so I had to wait. I went through a 7-day long detox and then a 6-week intensive outpatient treatment.”

What emotions did you feel?

“I had anxiety through the roof. Drinking brought about terrible, terrible anxiety... But now, I didn’t have my self medicating procedure...