# Martin Seligman and Learned Helplessness



## ph10 (Nov 24, 2012)

Hey guys,

I've hardly been on here since I recovered, and when I do come back to the forums it's to go through and try to help as many people as possible. Since my recovery, I've been reading alot about psychology in general to help fortify myself and become truly the best, most positive person I can. One person who you guys should ALL go and check out is Martin Seligman. His research has very little to do with DP at first glance, but it's sure as hell worth reading.

Let me pose a point, first of all. You guys still stuck in DP spend so much time researching mental disorders and stuff that your brain is clouded with negativity and you, if you're anything like I was, are OBSESSED with the way your own brain works - and consciously, whether you believe it or not, self-imposing just about everything that CAN go wrong in your mind on your mind. Been there, did that for 9 months. Sucked ass.

You've all probably heard of the DSM, which Martin Seligman described as a HUGE book of everything that can go wrong with the brain. It's the epitome of negativity crammed into a hardback cover. What he created, instead, was a book called Character Strengths and Virtues which is the polar opposite. It's a book filled with everything that can go RIGHT in the human brain. One of the most pivotally important things I found when getting out of DP was that if there was any way I could improve myself, my character, and my actions - I'd go for it. Regardless of DP. We focus so much negative attention on our minds when DP'd that thinking POSITIVELY about your brain would be a huge help, no matter what. So go check that book out.

Secondly, Martin Seligman came up with this theory of Learned Helplessness. Wikipedia sums this up better than I can, so here it is in a nutshell... "*Learned helplessness *is the view that clinical depression and related mental illnesses may result from a perceived absence of control over the outcome of a situation." http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Learned_helplessness

What's so intriguing to me is that everyone who's recovered from anxiety-related (non-trauma) DP agree that it's entirely a thought disorder, created by anxiety redirected into the brain during an (otherwise temporary) episode, leading to the continuation of the symptom and CONSTANT anxiety which fuels it. The two feed off each other. DP scares the shit out you, so in turn you focus all your attention (negatively) on it, which makes DP go on, making you feel like it's never going to go away, which further scares the shit out of you, etc.)

Yet nobody suffering from DP seems to believe in this, the "thought disorder" concept seems incomprehensible. Actually after reaching 0% symptoms for a week in July, I relapsed for another month and in that time I no longer thought it was a thought disorder. Once again it seemed out of my control, as though "it" was getting worse of it's own accord like I thought couldn't happen only weeks earlier. Why is this?

BAM.

LEARNED HELPLESSNESS.

Let me explain.

Almost nobody, during their onset of DP, thinks, "eh, just anxiety, it'll go away." Of course not! Nobody knows what it is until hours, maybe days, or in some cases years later. Our initial, uneducated reaction to DP is that it's out of our control, scary as fuck, and impossible to break out of. Because we can't consciously "stop" it, we think it can't be "in our heads." From that point on, we learn to treat our THOUGHTS, "it's getting worse," "what if everything's not real," "dafuq is life," "this will never go away," as symptoms. As though they are out of our control. We LEARN to succumb to them because we believe we have no power over them. It's the same reason anxiety, depression, and many other mental illnesses come on. Make sense?

Well the good news is, if you can truly believe DP is in the control of your own thoughts (which is true, btw) then you can beat it. That's how everyone who has gotten out has done it. It's only logic - if you have control over either experiencing the shittiest feeling on earth or not, why the hell would you let it continue? Of course it's not quite that simple. There's a fair amount of reverse psychology involved (you spend shit tons of time trying not to think about it, therefore you do) but in essence, that's the mindset you need to beat the disorder. Once you attain power over your symptoms and thoughts, you can consciously REFUSE to experience it any longer.

Make sense?

Good. Like I said, this didn't make sense to me until after I'd recovered - at the time I hardly knew what was going on other than that I when I was truly distracted from DP I had no symptoms. But that's just another key to recovery, and a whole other story. I'll leave you guys with this for now, hope I could help.

Also, I want to apologize to anyone else I might've pissed off with my last post. The last thing I'd want was to disrespect the forum or anyone on here. DP's a complex issue, and I admit I'll disagree with some people on here, but that's all I intend to do. If I've got a point, I want to make it and prove I'm right. Why? Because I'm human, and I want to help people recover. Fair enough?

Best of luck to everybody.

-Penn


----------



## ph10 (Nov 24, 2012)

Here's a link to the summary of CSV which I found incredibly helpful, just to read thru in a minute http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Character_Strengths_and_Virtues_(book)


----------



## appleseed24 (Oct 9, 2013)

Yes yes! completely agree, as someone who recovered just a month ago this "learned helplessness" is a a massive factor to DP. It's a thought loop that keeps going around and around until you've had enough and want to move on with your life. But only YOU can do it, by your own will power. My motivation was that I remembered all the things I wanted to pursue (Dancing, writing, singing etc.) and I asked myself, am I going to let an anxiety disorder get in the way of my passions and interests?

I told my DP thoughts, um hey...you're not valid and you're not true (22 years of experience up until this point as myself is all the proof I needed) so I'm not going to believe you anymore.

It's so annoying right having these unreal, odd thoughts and sensations, I'm like I gotta do my life, I can't have DP, my ambitions won't allow it.

Once you reconnect to who you were before and make that bigger than the DP, it will disintegrate. It doesn't even have to be your ambitions, reconnect to a relationship, it's still there but don't you want to experience that relationship like you did before?

Get your motor running and plough through!


----------



## ph10 (Nov 24, 2012)

Hell yeah! said it better than me lol.



appleseed24 said:


> Yes yes! completely agree, as someone who recovered just a month ago this "learned helplessness" is a a massive factor to DP. It's a thought loop that keeps going around and around until you've had enough and want to move on with your life. But only YOU can do it, by your own will power. My motivation was that I remembered all the things I wanted to pursue (Dancing, writing, singing etc.) and I asked myself, am I going to let an anxiety disorder get in the way of my passions and interests?
> 
> I told my DP thoughts, um hey...you're not valid and you're not true (22 years of experience up until this point as myself is all the proof I needed) so I'm not going to believe you anymore.
> 
> ...


----------



## Guest (Feb 13, 2014)

This is the most relevant post on this entire website, love it!!


----------



## Jurgen (Aug 3, 2013)

Selig said:


> I came here to post this a second time.... DP memory.


I saw this on the recently posted column and thought you were included in a thead until I took a closer look and was like hmmmm... That's funny


----------

