Just the other day you were talking to a friend about your mood and anxiety symptoms. Quickly summing things up you said, “Someday I’ll look back at this and laugh.” Seriously?
See, it was all a cover-up for mood and anxiety realities I didn’t want to face, much less accept.
As long as there aren’t any hidden agendas.
”Someday I’ll look back at this and laugh.” was always one of my go-tos.
But though it paints a wonderful picture, I came to view it as a counterproductive and worn-out cliche.
“Seriously?” Yep, and here’s why…
Mood and anxiety self-deception
The change went down when I said it to a friend a number of years ago.
Right after it came out of my mouth it hit me. I said to myself, “Aren’t you tired of going there, Bill. Something’s wrong and you need to square it up.”
That something was the self-deception of it all. It caught up with me.
I mean, I might as well have been saying, “Hey, nothing to see here. I’m just fine. In fact, I’ll even toss a few chuckles at it when it’s over next week.”
How’s that for not handling the truth?
And you know what? Most of the time, I don’t think I was consciously aware of what I was up to.
A cover-up
See, it was all a cover-up for mood and anxiety realities I didn’t want to face, much less accept.
And the numero uno reality that got inside my head was my history of poor judgment and decision-making.
I hated it.
So I kept a clever line in my back pocket. And I could pull it out and use it when accountability came to call.
Thankfully, I knew the jig was up.
So now what?
“Okay, Uncle Bill, can I look back and at least do this someday?”
The cat was out of the bag. The chickens came home to roost. The jig was up. You get the idea.
”Someday I’ll look back at this and laugh.” I was tired of everything it stood for.
So now what?
Well, I suppose I could have designed some sort of contraption that would zap me every time I said it. But, nah, that would be the easy way out.
Then I came up with this novel idea…
Why not work on not having to say it in the first place? Hmm, pretty simple, stop doing the things that prompt the cliches.
Working through poor judgment and decision-making
Tell you what, as long as we’re together here, how ‘bout we grab a little extra help. Let’s transition our chat to working through some undesirable fallout from our mood and anxiety circumstances.
We’ll go with the poor judgment and decision-making issue I struggled with. It may be a good fit for you as well.
Executive functions
Judgment and decision-making are executive functions. And the action takes place in the brain’s prefrontal cortex (PFC).
The PFC is a busy place when it comes to the mood and anxiety disorders, so there could well be the occasional traffic jam. And when one occurs, dicey judgment and decision-making often arrive on the scene.
Inattention and impulsivity
Now, of particular note in the executive functions ballpark are inattention and impulsivity.
For instance, if we’re depressed we’re much more likely not to care enough to make quality decisions. If we’re anxious, hypomanic, or manic, our elevated mental state may show the door to any ability to make good judgment calls.
No need for cover-ups
There are all sorts of things we can do to fine tune our judgment and decision-making.
There’s really no need for cover-ups.
I’d like to share some of those interventions, but we’re out of room. No sweat, I’ve decided to run a “part two” so we can get it handled.
In the meantime, let’s get ready by gaining insight into whether or not we’re being self-deceptive when it comes to our optimistic outlooks.
Seriously?
I think we pulled off a twofer. We got into the perils of self-deception. And that spawned a discussion of a couple of common mood and anxiety disorder challenges.
Just think, it all started with “Someday I’ll look back at this and laugh.”
Seriously?
Be sure to head on over to part two, 10 ways to manage poor judgment and decision-making.
Feel like reading more Chipur mood and anxiety info and inspiration articles? Please, be my guest.
