Posted by undopaminergic on May 4, 2008, at 23:36:37
In reply to Re:gret » undopaminergic, posted by Questionmark on May 4, 2008, at 21:04:10
I think your problem of dwelling on loss of opportunities and potential is qualitatively different from the issue of recurring memories that provoke unpleasant feelings. In your case, I agree that serotonergic drugs may be appropriate, due to their efficacy against obsessive-compulsive symptoms.
> Thank you for your comments.
> I'm aware that no drug can be a permanent solution to this problem and that the only thing that may is something psychological (e.g., cognitive and behavioral techniques possibly), but i appreciate your psychologically therapeutic (so to speak) suggestions. But i don't know if your suggestion can be effective (for me at least, of course). I feel like i'm already almost constantly analyzing each instance of destructive thoughts, but it only exacerbates the psychological pain. Maybe i misunderstood your exact meaning though.
> Shoot, actually the last post seems to have been intended for someone else probably-- namely "iforgotmypassword". Sorry. But in any case i still want to point out that, for me, feelings of humiliation are not as much the problem of regret as is the feelings of eternal loss (unfulfilled desires, experiences and opportunities) and how if i could have done even little things differently it could have had changed things significantly and for the better.
> Also, i'm not sure i agree with your second to last sentence, concerning stimulants. They can definitely be helpful for regret, but they are so temporary, and once you come down it's even worse.
> Sorry if i shouldn't have responded to this.
>
> > Perhaps serotonergic drugs are effective against compulsive rumination on the past, but it's likely that they only resolve the compulsion, and only temporarily (until you quit the drug). Stimulants instill self-confidence and make those past events seem less threatening, but this is also temporary. The permanent solution is to carefully analyse each recurring instance of destructive thoughts until they no longer seem humiliating, or even significant. There will only be a limited number of past events that are recurrently troublesome, so you just have to defang them one by one. Possibly, some medications can help in this process - if so, it would most likely be stimulants, due to their enhancement of self-confidence. However, the medications won't do the necessary work of thought-analysis for you.
poster:undopaminergic
thread:823549
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20080430/msgs/827255.html