We hear a lot these days about fake news. It is seemingly a new phenomenon—a type of journalism or propaganda consisting of deliberate misinformation, hoaxes, or gross distortions intended to cast doubt upon legitimate news. Fake news is published or broadcast with the intent to mislead in order to damage people.
I am not writing about the devious ploys of politics or the sub rosa media. My interest is in helping you understand and evaluate the news and noise going on in your own head—specifically, your thoughts, feelings, and beliefs. For many people, their feelings and thoughts are routinely upsetting, often to the point of escalating anxiety, panic, depression, irritability, anger, stress, and loss of control.
It’s worth asking: how much of the upsetting thoughts and feelings you have are unwanted and frequent? And are your negative thoughts and feelings real? Or are they analogous to fake news?
At times, everyone has interfering thoughts and unpleasant feelings. The thoughts buzz inside like mosquito swarms, hard to ignore and causing distraction and upset. It’s a normal part of life to have occasional down times, anxieties, worries, and even some fears. However, for many people, intruding thoughts, preoccupations, and negative emotions can take over and make one’s daily life a battle to subdue or escape the negative onslaughts.
The prevailing response given to those afflicted may be a combination of medications, solace, and advice to just “ignore” the upsetting thoughts and feelings. Easy to advise, but hard for sufferers to do and endure.
Medications (self-prescribed or doctor prescribed) may temporarily blunt the internal storm; but they are costly in terms of side effects and lack of establishing true internal control. Well-meaning friends and family are sympathetic but stymied by the inscrutable panic of those who suffer and complain, often advising them to realize that the thoughts and feelings are temporary, exaggerated, or perhaps not even real. And the predominant (but, alas, ineffective) psychotherapy offered to subdue unwanted thoughts and feelings is some version of cognitive behavioral therapy, which teaches the patient to “reframe” the anguish in terms that reduce its impact or severity.
Unfortunately, when you persistently feel bad or think overwhelming, obsessive, and negative thoughts, “ignoring” and/or “reframing” are not viable or effective strategies.
This problem of overarching upsetting thoughts and feelings is so common. Millions of people are made miserable by their own minds. This brings up the question of the source and credibility of the mind’s “news reports” of what it and the body are experiencing. I’m not doubting the anguish of those suffering from anxiety, gloom and doom feelings, or negative thoughts. It’s palpable and overwhelming for those who experience them. But, let’s examine what causes these disturbing thoughts and feelings, how much direct attention to give them, and how to interpret them and make them go away.
After decades in the field of psychology, I’m persuaded to explore physiology as the root of most psychological problems, especially the seemingly separate or tangential issues of disturbing thoughts and feelings. Long ago, I subscribed to the (still prevalent) belief that persisting psychological disturbances are outgrowths of early mistreatment. Now, I know that this assumption is fundamentally mistaken. Past traumas matter; but they are often blamed—along with present circumstances—as wholly responsible for explaining and justifying present dysfunction. This is rarely and marginally the whole story.
Through years of evidence-based empirical treatment of thousands of patients, it turns out that when people learn (or train) to control their brain physiology, symptoms once believed to be inextricably tied to the pernicious past, malevolent present, or threatening future dissolve into greater calm, internal self-control, and the subsiding or elimination of besetting thoughts and feelings.
The link between physiological self-regulation and the manifestation of bothersome thoughts and feelings is counterintuitive. Emotions and cognitive activity—while noticeably related—seem to have their own autonomous existences. They are sensory, present, and demand immediate attention and justification by the current mind that feels and thinks these events. We all tend to believe our stories, often unaware that they are created to justify and make sense of physiological and emotional experiences.
The nature of the mind is that it makes up stories to justify the way the body functions and feels. That constant chatter (yes, you have it, too) that proffers opinions, criticisms, “likes,” and other comments is our mind’s way to interpret perceptions, organize reality, and help us navigate a complex and ambiguous world. I call it the “narrative.”
Sometimes, I refer to this mentally active narrative as the “White House Press Secretary” of the mind. Just as the job of the White House Press Secretary is to report upon, justify, and favorably “spin” the administration’s policies, the job of our mind’s narrative is to support how we feel physiologically through the filters of our beliefs and values, according to the events and circumstances evolving around us. Your physiology is the motivating force. Your story is your mind’s fidelity and allegiance to the boss. The mind’s narrative explains and justifies the body’s conditions.
My father often intoned a wise saying: “Opinions come easily on a full stomach.” How true that our gut so often dictates how we see the world and what we think!
Along these lines of the mind’s fidelity to the body and its tendency toward self-deception is a Yiddish saying:
Vos der mensch ken alts ibertrachten, ken der ergster soyna im nisht vinchen.
(What people can think up for themselves, their own worst enemies couldn’t wish upon them.)
Similarly, there is Mark Twain’s observation:
I’m an old man, and I’ve seen many, many terrible things. Only most of them never happened.
When you feel bad, it’s very real. When you’re besieged by obsessive negative thoughts, they are real because they’re prominent and because they tempt you into evaluating them, examining them from different angles, and assessing and worrying about the extent to which the negative thoughts are sound and will come true.
The thoughts don’t cause the feelings. However, by constantly reviewing and reinforcing disturbing thought patterns, you can justify and prolong the effects of emotional turmoil because you believe they are inextricably connected. This is the fake part. Your thoughts don’t cause your feelings.
Your physiology causes your feelings, which in turn prompt habitual (though often unwanted) thoughts. You may have thinking patterns that you fatalistically believe. Often, these are patterns of “gloom-and-doom” forecasting (e.g., “I just know that event will be a disaster…”) or criticisms of others and especially yourself (e.g., “That person thinks poorly of me.” “I could kick myself… things are never going to get better…”).
Such persistent thought patterns are intrusive. These overwhelming negative internal loops are different from more realistic observations and self-evaluations. It’s necessary and appropriate to hold oneself accountable, develop a fair assessment of one’s own actions and worth, and refrain from self-pity or overestimation of one’s own importance.
Constant internal negativity and emotional disarray bring misery, and they interfere with reasonably objective and realistic interpretation of yourself in relation to others and your current and historical circumstances.
People beset by upsetting thoughts range in the degree to which they believe the intrusive thoughts are real. Most people understand that their obsessive thinking is irrational. This is easily apparent in the case of phobias, where the person knows there is no actual danger—but that doesn’t stop the gut-wrenching physiological and emotionally fearful reaction. The fight-or-flight physiological response overrides rationale.
For many, the invention and repetition of impending horror eventually becomes an assumed natural part of their mental landscape; and they just live with a sense of threat and fear, believing that because their thoughts won’t leave, there must be some actual merit to them.
Yet, for others, afflicted by serious mental illness (such as the thought disorders in schizophrenia or delusional psychosis), the presence of their internal dialogue—completely irrational, unsubstantiated, and unavailable to anyone besides themselves—the thoughts are real and inviolable to the point of directing and propelling their (often aggressive and dysfunctional) behavior.
People range in their ego strength—that is, the sense of identity, self-image, and confidence, directly related to coping mechanisms for dealing with life and threats to one’s integrity and psychological equanimity. Some people overestimate themselves, and many others devalue themselves. Self-images that detour significantly from empirical evidence constitute very large subsets of fake news. Your inner voice constantly reminds you of where you think you stand in relation to the world and to others.
Let’s review for the sake of clarifying the reality and impact of negative thoughts and feelings:
In 1982, I attended a motivational seminar in Los Angeles that featured a very successful but rough-hewn businessman. I distinctly remember his peculiar and disconcerting habit repeated throughout his presentation. The speaker would periodically turn his head and yell, “Get outta here!” This happened numerous times, and was very weird and distracting. I thought that maybe he had Tourette’s Syndrome and these were tics. However, he explained that his exclamations were in response to “the devil distracting and baiting” him. He was, he explained, “in the name of Jesus, chasing away Satan’s intrusions into his mind.”
Grateful for an explanation of his odd behavior, but still bothered by its unorthodoxy, I determined to try this strategy privately. (This event occurred shortly before I became a Christian; thus, it was for me, an unnatural “experiment.”) Much to my surprise, the strategy repeatedly worked! Yet, I was horrified that some “religious ritual” could be effective in chasing away disturbing thoughts that resembled… well, er, demons. I was too embarrassed and proper to engage in this response around other people; yet, its efficacy in combatting fake news was undeniable.
Over the years and decades as I treated patients, I observed that mind intrusions and thought preoccupations are so prevalent in vexing people’s peace of mind and ability to calm themselves. This syndrome is a source and symptom of emotional and adjustment disturbance, affecting the equanimity, concentration, and sleep of millions.
The important message regarding mind noise and “fake news” is the role of self-control, flexibility, and the empowerment of knowing that you can essentially run your own mind.
In my book, Living Intact: Challenge and Choice in Tough Times, I discuss a domain called self habits:
Our self habits reflect predispositions and learned skills to control and regulate our bodies and minds. Self habits allow us to adjust to changing conditions within ourselves and to challenges the world thrusts upon us.
Self habits allow us to function and maintain ourselves as independent beings. These capacities do not refer to biological or social functions per se (such as the ability to feed, dress, get around, or carry out responsibilities); rather, they refer to regulatory capacities that enable us to adjust to changing conditions and events both within and beyond our initiation or control. For example, your ability to remain composed in the face of an insult or threat requires the application of self habits, as does the ability to handle delays, or accept that the sale item you wanted to purchase is no longer on sale or no longer available. Were you to go ballistic or become dysfunctional when confronted with these situations, your self habits would become barriers to living intact. It is relatively easy to understand the biological necessity of maintaining body temperature and respiration. It may be more difficult to conceptualize self habits as representing the capability to maintain emotional temperature and not be devastated whenever life’s events surprise, confront, scare, or disappoint.
In addition to the automatic biological adjustments of physiology, self habits furnish the rational analytical skills that permit us to observe the effects of how we act and to make context appropriate adaptations. Living intact requires that you develop and practice the skill of adjusting your perspective and reactions so that setbacks, frustrations, and disappointments do not become excessively disruptive. This capacity not to “sweat the small stuff,” but instead to react objectively and detach from taking things too personally is essential; it is a self habit that constitutes a critically important category of responses called permeability. When you have permeability, you are able to let things that detract from intactness “pass though” your filters of overreactions and ego sensitivity.
Self habits include:
Forming and practicing the habit of permeability is a great ally in overcoming fake news in your mind. Rather than yelling and chasing the thoughts away (too much engagement), you can simply filter intrusive thoughts by letting them “pass through” your consciousness without attaching, engaging, judging, or reacting to them—like clouds or sprinkles passing overhead that will soon be gone and that don’t require any reactions or comments from you.
There are numerous disciplines and strategies people use to detach from mind noise and to calm themselves and restore equanimity. Prayer, meditation, deep breathing, chanting, and telling the devil to leave are strategies that work for different people. Medications may temporarily block thoughts and dull the mind, but the drugs yield brief and limited relief and also have deleterious side effects.
You can develop and improve your mastery of permeability, so that the fake news does not preoccupy and deceive you. Deliberate conscious practice and awareness of letting the thoughts “pass through” will help. Also, training of your mind through EEG neurofeedback will help you develop the automatic control and engagement/disengagement of your thoughts. Remember, the intrusive onslaught of thoughts and anxiety is a physiological phenomenon that becomes a neurological brain habit. When the physiology is self-regulated and smooth, the fight-or-flight response subsides and the thought process—a.k.a., the White House Press Secretary of your mind—comes under calm self-control.
Another useful technique to calm the mind and put fake news in perspective is to use Thought Field Therapy (TFT). These techniques can be self-administered with effective results. A detailed explanation and self-help guide is available in my book, Living Intact: Challenge and Choice in Tough Times.
It’s an important first step to recognize that the noise in your mind is directly reflective of your inner response to physiological stimuli and difficulties with internal state regulation (the ability to calm down and avoid unnecessary fight-or-flight response).
Once you recognize the fake news beleaguering your mind, you can take steps to avoid preoccupation and obsession. However, there is still the matter of whether the annoyances in your mind are fake or really true. This is best resolved by developing a realistic and objective perspective about yourself and how others see and regard you.
Instead of feeding your mind’s negativity with “what if it’s true” speculations, pair your self-calming habits with self-reminders about what you know to be true about yourself. To do this effectively, you need a good grip on reality, reinforced by responses over time from others in your world—not by their reassurances, but by your knowledge of how they see you and what they think about you. If this remains an elusive problem, or if you tend to be grossly inaccurate, then strategic, goal-oriented mentoring or therapy may be of great assistance to develop sound reality-testing. Whereas reassurance from others will not chase away the annoying thoughts, sound feedback can assist in challenging the legitimacy of fake news through collaborative “fact-checking” by you and a trusted advisor. (This is very different from cognitive reframing.)
If you know that your pestering thoughts are false or misleading and you can exercise the aforementioned disciplines to calm yourself, then also reviewing your successful coping and functioning can give you the perspective and confidence to weather the “thought mosquitos” that are buzzing inside periodically.
When I am beset by worries about the future, I habitually review my past successes in dealing with adversity, my known but misleading tendency to magnify or invent complications, and my faith that God is near and watching out for me. I routinely include self-regulation habits to keep me tuned and balanced. These assets restore my equanimity during tenuous moments; and they will work for you, too.
— Mark Steinberg, PhD
