Dementia & fear mentality

Repeat

Dementia has been ever-increasing in the population within the last decade and even affecting younger adults, as young as in their twenties. It is a list of symptoms that characterize the more well-known Alzheimer’s but also other diseases such as Lewy Body and Vascular Dementia. One of the most prevalent symptoms is that of repetitive speech and actions. As a former CNA, I began my nursing home career specifically in the Dementia Unit. There was one elderly lady in particular who was affected by what is called sundowner syndrome, meaning when the sun went down, her repetitive symptoms kicked in. At around 8pm every night, she would begin fretting over whether or not she had enough beds for all her unwanted guests and where her husband could possibly be at this time of night. There is speculation (which more than likely has much truth in it ) that over-medication may be the main cause of the sundowning. The repetitiveness however is guaranteed. Through channeling, I’ve come to notice that the ego or lower vibrational beings work through repetition. See, the subconscious mind only understands repetitiveness. As there is no self-awareness in the subconscious mind, repetition allows it to function in a seemingly logical manner. In a sense, it’s fighting for dominance. What do most of you have on repeat anyway? Usually the negative stuff, right? Fear-based mentality becomes, through repetition. Positive outlooks also work on repetition of the subconscious mind but, unlike fear-based mentality, there is less of a need in the requirement to have the same thoughts, mantras, or actions. Fear-based mentality ends up causing repetition to become about control, limitation, and imprisonment, while positivity allows for freedom. Even when the external stimulus ceases to exist, the repetitiveness continues. This is called preservation. Many, if not most, of you spend the entirety of your lives in preservation. Whether it’s through your own conscious fault or through the bombardment of external sources, you continuously assault your subconscious mind with negative thoughts which you then play out through your actions and words, reinforcing the validity of those thoughts. So, technically, whether or not there may be external factors or antecedents (such as genetics), you are essentially setting your own selves up to developing dementia symptoms. As it is said, you are your own worst enemy. When you refuse to become not only consciously aware of your innermost thoughts and your externalization of those thoughts through your words and actions, but also take control of those thoughts, you allow the subconscious to gain control, eventually attaching the diagnoses of a dementia-symptomatic disease to your identity.

Imagine, for one moment, the damage that is being created every moment of every day within you from just the external sources that you subject yourself to – media, coworkers, family, customers, the symbolism of masks, magazines depicting air-brushed “perfection.” Now, pay attention to what your thoughts are versus your external words and actions.

A few year ago, I began paying more attention to this by taking control back. I’m still in the taking back control uphill struggle. There’s months I can go with little of that struggle and then something may cause me to lose that focus and allow the ugly beast to roar. Those repetitions are always ugly too – completely based in judgment and fear. Recently, I’ve taken to calling them out – “Repetition!” – and my thoughts will then be momentarily diverted. The sneaky little bastards though have learned to change the thought ever so slightly that, like political campaigns that claim “change,” they appear on the surface to be different when in reality the tune is still ninety-nine bottles of beer on the wall… Train you conscious self to perk up when there’s repetition ANYWHERE. Where there’s repetition, there’s subconscious control – even if it’s you doing the controlling. The question is who’s doing the controlling and are you consciously aware of it?

Let me know in the comments below if there’s anything you’d like to add or disagree with. I’d love to know your thoughts!

6 responses to “Dementia & fear mentality”

  1. Repetitive thought behaviors as the root of dementia, I dig it. Mechanically, diseases like Alzheimer’s are characterized, or potentially “caused” by a buildup of protein aggregates. These are mis-folded proteins which cells make repetitively for a variety of reasons. So repetition on the cellular level mirrors your model of what’s happening on a mental level. But cells also repetitively make the right proteins also, which is why what ultimately forms the “order” which gives rise to life. So our cells repetitively create the right proteins, and also mis-folded proteins. Yet healthy cells have machinery to break down these mis-folded proteins, constantly keeping them in check. Perhaps the mind is again analogous? Negative repetition consistently emerges, and to keep our mind healthy we must continually identify and break down these mal-repetitions as a continual process?

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    1. Wow, Fascinating! I’ve never really been interested in studying it as a biological function but have always been intrigued by the psychological/emotional aspect. I’ve worked with various mental disabilities throughout my life in a way that requires me to figure out how to reach the real person inside, not the label. Your comment makes me wonder what’s going on with other psychological diagnosis – is there a similar pattern of mirroring being seen there too? Ooh! Research time! Thank you so much for your comment Marcellus the Wanderer!

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      1. I’m grateful. You have amazing insight on the mental side of it that I had never considered. And always we can ask the question: are the observable physical happenings the cause of the mental experience, or the result of the mental experience? It seems to me that all we can say for certain is that the two exist in conjunction. To state one causes the other is potential bias. To understand the conjunction means we can proactively work with both manifestations, mental and physical, in a holistic manner.

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        1. Yes! I had actually already been considering schizophrenia and autism through a spiritual lens but had that light bulb moment on dementia that I had to share. As to your question, I personally favor mental, as well as the emotional and spiritual, as being the cause of the physical manifestation. Thought and emotional long-term patterns can do irreparable damage to the body that makes western medicine, which places its focus on the body, insufficient in healing. The division that society has created between healing the body/heart/mind complex has always seemed rather limiting to me. While working in a nursing home (long after being a CNA), I was in charge of activities. My job was essentially to get to the heart of the person, to find out what lit them up. Sometimes it took awhile to figure someone out, but I always did (which made me have to be very creative with those activities). On an emotional, spiritual, and mental level, I’d classify that as an imperative position, and yet it’s the least honored one. People go to nursing homes to die it is said, and the only way to make someone want to live is to light them up mentally, emotionally, and spiritually. As an artist, I’ve always been asked why I refuse to become a teacher. I was a substitute art teacher for years and watched the public school system consistently demote the arts until students only experienced art every 2 weeks for 40 minutes and the teacher is relegated to a cart of crayons and glue that she must shuffle from class to class. Yet, even studies show that kids who partake of the arts (as well as sports) do significantly greater and have better critical thinking skills than their peers. There’s much about society that I think neglects and dismisses the importance of the spiritual and emotional and how they affect the mental and physical, which technically I could begin an entire discussion on the political/educational/health systems here, but this has probably been too long already. Lol! But, just one more thing… I think, in general, people have a tendency to only look for what’s on the surface or from the standpoint of that which they resonate with most, instead of gathering information from a variety of fields, examining the information as a whole, and then figuring out the healing needed. Instead we like to focus on the logic of our science in the belief that it has all the answers and, most assuredly, the correct ones. We sometimes fail to realize the limitation in our conclusions and the damage we may inflict because of those limitations. (I apologize for the length – my FB friends complain of my verbosity on the rare occasion I post.)

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          1. I appreciate the above. Chemicals can affect mood/thought (which is why drugs do what they do) and thoughts and mood can affect chemicals (rewards, meditation, intentional self talk). I agree that often we focus on the former: take these chemicals to change or fix you. And thus we often neglect the latter, because meditation and positive thinking are free (zero monetary cost).

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            1. Excellent point! We love the quick fix, don’t we? I don’t discount the use of drugs to an extent but I do think we’re missing something very vital when we mask the issue. Sometimes what we perceive as a disability or dissonance from reality may in truth be a gift that could be just freakin’ difficult to figure out. (But, this would go along with my thoughts on schizophrenia which is a post for another day.) Meditation, self and society acceptance, better and more varied mind/body/heart/soul complex understanding could all be helpful. One day I’ll have to tell the story of my grandparents who both had dementia – quite a unique and scratch-your-head-kind-of-funny…

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