Conquering the Voice Within

Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD)

Not only was psychoanalysis ineffective, it trapped me in a bizarre, introspective maze. OCD came on full force during the weekly, often twice weekly sessions.  After a few months, I forgot the reason I came to the psychiatrist and was explaining endlessly about “my Oedipal feelings.”

This was the 1950s; the psychiatrist was steeped in Freud. I was obsessed with explaining my thoughts, filling dresser drawers with spiral notebooks with what I had to explain to the doctor. I threw out old clothes to make room in dresser drawers for spiral notebooks full of scribbled notes and prescribed pills.

I recall a date at a drive-in-theater in Port Newark, New Jersey. No teenager takes a date to a drive-in and watches the movie. Nor did I. No spiral notebook, so I spent perhaps an hour total in visits to the men’s room filling sheets of toilet paper with obsessions. What might my date have been thinking?

Metacognitive Therapy

Adrian Wells, founder of Metacognitive Therapy, did not begin publishing his research until the 1990s. I would not discover Metacognitive Therapy until the twenty-first century. Though the content of what people think can be virtually anything, their thought process involves similar patterns of worry and rumination. Metacognitive Therapy deals with rumination by focusing on the process and patterns of thinking, rather than the content of problems.

The brain is a thinking machine. “Feed Me, Feed Me,” it calls out, but it doesn’t care what you feed it. Feed your brain a diet that helps you get off the treadmill, expand your point of vie, and keep moving forward.

Do Not Feed the Monster!

Rather than focusing on the thought, MCT steps back to look at the thinking process. Is this an old repeated thought pattern? Repetitive patterns of worry, rumination, fixation of attention on threat, and coping behaviors feed the monster and keep emotional problems alive and well. Wells named this maze of thinking the Cognitive-Attentional Syndrome (CAS). Extreme CAS is OCD.

We think the same thoughts over and over and over, day after day. If anyone were to speak to you the way the voice in your head chatters endlessly on, you would show them the door. But we are captives of nonstop narrative produced by our brain. We find it impossible to silence the yakity yak interminable drone.

Patterns Over Problems

Cognitive Therapy works with perceived problems. Metacognitive Therapy works with patterns of worry, rumination, monitoring, and fixation. The core principle of Metacognitive Therapy is that psychological disorder is linked to unhealthy patterns of thinking. These patterns maintain emotional disturbance and strengthen negative thinking.

With Metacognitive Therapy,  you step back from perceived problems rather than attempting to solve them head on. It is a subtle shift from a focus on thinking out problems, to stepping back to focus on your thinking style. You step back from worry and rumination to become an observer of your thoughts. You step back from the battle, not getting involved in fighting irresolvable problems. It can be more far more productive to deal with the patterns of thinking that maintain disturbance and postpone living. The goal is to live life now.

Catch Yourself in a Negative Spin with Qs for Your Brain:

Why are you thinking this now?
Do you need to be thinking this now?
Is there a benefit to thinking this now?
Let’s find something to focus on that might benefit us both.

Metacognitive Therapy Toolkit

A  Metacognitve toolkit might include Ki Breathing Meditation, Attention Training Therapy, Mindful Meditation, Open Focus Training, and Bibliotherapy. Reading or listening to literature can be an effective metacognitive technique. It is difficult to view your own patterns of thinking. Literature may be the only way to  take on the point of view (POV) of  another person. You compare and contrast their patterns of thinking with your own. Gradually you adjust, change your patterns of thinking in order to live and enjoy your life now.

Never Too Late to Learn

You can never shut up the voice in your head entirely. The brain is an endless thinking machine. You can change your patterns of thinking . The voice can be tamed in this way. You get a little better at this day by day. Metacognitive Therapy is a part of an exercise routine for the brain.

Self-help books that help:

Total Self-Renewal through Attention Therapies and Open Focus

The Open-Focus Brain: Harnessing the Power of Attention to Heal Mind and Body