What goes on inside your head?

[Eddi]

I ask because I no longer know what's normal...

I am a recovering schizophrenic, since 2004 a pesky demon has been tormenting me.

Medicine has not displaced it but recently, through prayer and asserting my will I have largely silenced it. I would say that it is at the moment 99% silenced. It now only "speaks" to affirm its coming departure.

The thing is though, I cannot remember what it's like to be without it

So, my question is: When your attention is not occupied what goes on in your head?

Like, if you're not concentrating on something and are just idle what thoughts do you have?

It's as though I am now suddenly alone...

But I'm not complaining!

 

[Secret Chief]

Thoughts bubble up unbidden into our conscious mind from our subconscious mind. That is what brains do.

 

[SalixIncendium]

When I'm not concentrating on something (and occasionally when I am), abstract thoughts appear and disappear. Some catch my attention; some do not.

 

[Eddi]

When I'm not concentrating on something (and occasionally when I am), abstract thoughts appear and disappear. Some catch my attention; some do not.

So, you're saying that when your mind is unoccupied ideas occur to you, and those ideas then occupy your mind? So that you've always got something on your mind?

Would you call such ideas "daydreams"?

 

[dybmh]

Hi Eddi,

I ask because I no longer know what's normal...

Normal's just a word.

I am a recovering schizophrenic, since 2004 a pesky demon has been tormenting me.

I'm glad to hear you're recovering. If this has been going on since 2004, 16 years, that's a long time. You should feel good for making the recovery after being sick for so long.

Medicine has not displaced it but recently, through prayer and asserting my will I have largely silenced it. I would say that it is at the moment 99% silenced. It now only "speaks" to affirm its coming departure.

OK. Good. The next step is skepticism. You know... the stuff that Atheists and Agnostics practice? If one can build up their own will, like you have, and then apply skepticism to that last 1% of the demon.... Poof. That's it. It's the last step. The belief in the demon is gone.

The thing is though, I cannot remember what it's like to be without it

Good.

So, my question is: When your attention is not occupied what goes on in your head?

Everything and nothing all at the same time.

Strange but true.

It makes it difficult to drive. I walk basically everywhere.

Like, if you're not concentrating on something and are just idle what thoughts do you have?

Asked and answered^^

It's as though I am now suddenly alone...

That's a toughie, Eddi. Something like that lies far far outside the realm of angels and demons and gods....

send me a PM, maybe, and we can talk about it?

 

[SalixIncendium]

So, you're saying that when your mind is unoccupied ideas occur to you, and those ideas then occupy your mind? So that you've always got something on your mind?

There is always thought activity going on in my brain. I discovered this back when I was learning to meditate. It is up to me whether or not to have these thoughts "on my mind."

Would you call such ideas "daydreams"?

No. Daydreams would be a collection of associated thoughts one chooses focus on or to have "on their mind." Thoughts that occur otherwise, at least for me, are typically disassociated.

 

[Twilight Hue]

I ask because I no longer know what's normal...

I am a recovering schizophrenic, since 2004 a pesky demon has been tormenting me.

Medicine has not displaced it but recently, through prayer and asserting my will I have largely silenced it. I would say that it is at the moment 99% silenced. It now only "speaks" to affirm its coming departure.

The thing is though, I cannot remember what it's like to be without it

So, my question is: When your attention is not occupied what goes on in your head?

Like, if you're not concentrating on something and are just idle what thoughts do you have?

It's as though I am now suddenly alone...

But I'm not complaining!

I tend to drift away in my own thoughts and hold self conversations with myself ranging from self-aggrandizing entertainment all the way to discussing the state of affairs and the universe.

I think it's one of the beauties of having two personalities inside the same brain that enables us to reflect like this.

Maybe the schizophrenia is an out-of-control version of that but I'm no expert on it other than wishing you well that you overcome your mental issues and your demons revert back to being that simple voice in your head that we all have.

 

[Windwalker]

So, my question is: When your attention is not occupied what goes on in your head?

Like, if you're not concentrating on something and are just idle what thoughts do you have?

I've never had any mental illnesses per se, other than various degrees of anxiety, which I manage through meditation and exercise. So from the the "normal" perspective, the human mind is normally chattering away endlessly in loops of discursive thoughts, typically replaying the same 6 story lines over and over again with different characters and themes.

People don't really notice that until they start a meditation practice. And then, it is almost terrifying how much nonstop blah blah is going on in the head. No wonder we are so anxious most of the time! But, like living next to the freeway, or the trainyards, you learn to filter out that constant noise where you don't consciously hear it anymore.

That does not mean it is not affecting your stress levels. It certainly is. But once you can quite that noise and release it, it's absolutely astonishing how much calmer we are.

The "normal" mind, just does this, all day long, everyday. But we can train it to be quieter as its "new normal". We are not doomed to let it tell us what is normal. Here's a perfect quote from the Buddha to capture this.

"More than those who hate you, more than all your enemies, an undisciplined mind does greater harm"​

 

[dybmh]

the stuff that Atheists and Agnostics practice?

That's right people, Atheists make great exorcists.

 

[syo]

When your attention is not occupied what goes on in your head?

I am a huge introvert and I want to be alone. When I don't think, I look around my loneliness and I feel happy. This gives me power and then my extrovert side kicks and i want to see the world.

 

[EsonauticSage]

I ask because I no longer know what's normal...

I am a recovering schizophrenic, since 2004 a pesky demon has been tormenting me.

Medicine has not displaced it but recently, through prayer and asserting my will I have largely silenced it. I would say that it is at the moment 99% silenced. It now only "speaks" to affirm its coming departure.

The thing is though, I cannot remember what it's like to be without it

So, my question is: When your attention is not occupied what goes on in your head?

Like, if you're not concentrating on something and are just idle what thoughts do you have?

It's as though I am now suddenly alone...

But I'm not complaining!

My mind is basically a loop of moods, one to another to another to another to another to another to another back to the beginning (kind of like existence itself .)
Sometimes a massive stone is caught between the rung when something weird or unexpected happens but life, whatever you do, often ends up being repetitive.

 

[Milton Platt]

I ask because I no longer know what's normal...

I am a recovering schizophrenic, since 2004 a pesky demon has been tormenting me.

Medicine has not displaced it but recently, through prayer and asserting my will I have largely silenced it. I would say that it is at the moment 99% silenced. It now only "speaks" to affirm its coming departure.

The thing is though, I cannot remember what it's like to be without it

So, my question is: When your attention is not occupied what goes on in your head?

Like, if you're not concentrating on something and are just idle what thoughts do you have?

It's as though I am now suddenly alone...

But I'm not complaining!

Being mentally alone for awhile can be pleasant. I tend to be reflective. In other words, I contemplate my life, or the world, or speculate in my mind about the future.

 

[Valjean]

In my head I create a reality.

 

[Revoltingest]

 

[Thief]

I ask because I no longer know what's normal...

I am a recovering schizophrenic, since 2004 a pesky demon has been tormenting me.

Medicine has not displaced it but recently, through prayer and asserting my will I have largely silenced it. I would say that it is at the moment 99% silenced. It now only "speaks" to affirm its coming departure.

The thing is though, I cannot remember what it's like to be without it

So, my question is: When your attention is not occupied what goes on in your head?

Like, if you're not concentrating on something and are just idle what thoughts do you have?

It's as though I am now suddenly alone...

But I'm not complaining!

for once....I will make no direct answer

but maybe you've seen my postwork here in the Forum?

 

[Thief]

you are one scary dude

 

[Left Coast]

So, my question is: When your attention is not occupied what goes on in your head?

Like, if you're not concentrating on something and are just idle what thoughts do you have?

 

[Revoltingest]

for once....I will make no direct answer

but maybe you've seen my postwork here in the Forum?

I looked inside your head.....

 

[Thief]

View attachment 41684

I used to look like that

I try not to think about it now

 

[Thief]

I looked inside your head.....

HEY.....get out of my head
and STAY out