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Old 04-29-2021, 07:54 AM
  # 7 (permalink)  
Aellyce
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Join Date: Jul 2010
Posts: 10,912
Just want to add to this that, I think, a lot of what we experience as "understanding" of our own thoughts, feelings and motives is actually not understanding causality but projection. It's easy to infuse anything with whatever occupies our mind currently. I think a very good example for how this works can be anxiety - often it is merely the result of chemical reactions, which generate uneasiness that we want to rationalize, so we look for causes and relationships and create some, instead of truly identifying them. Or the good old one about rationalizing substance use with saying it's coping with something, we picked up because X or Y happened. We are wired to find meaning in things, external and internal. I think most of these are mental projections, but it can feel very significant and real in the moment.

Hope you are doing well, nons
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