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by deffibaugh 5684 days ago
I must be a counter example to the people with the problems this article describes. Maybe it is natural for a person about to graduate college with no idea what I am doing or where I am going but I can not stop thinking about my big problems. Moreover, my constant thought about myself is almost crippling and keeps me from actually doing anything. I do think that maybe this stems from the "self esteem" work this article talks about...
1 comments
AlexandrB 5684 days ago
I was in this state a year ago and I found that external self-esteem boosters are pretty useless. The nagging self-doubt still lingers no matter what others say.

What I found helped was doing the task equivalent of http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Debt-snowball_method - starting with a list of stuff I wanted to do/improve I did the easiest[1]/fastest things first. This builds confidence quickly and you can start working up to harder tasks - it also keeps you focused on nice short term goals, which reduces how much you worry about the big problems.

Not sure if this helps... good luck.

[1] I literally had things like "buy new shirt" in the list that were very easy, but we're constantly getting forgotten/put off because of the constant worry about the big problems.

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deffibaugh 5684 days ago
Thanks a lot I will have to try this. I have started using todo lists and they have seemed to help. I do worry I might be slightly depressed. However, I think this problem is something different because I have not had any problems with meeting people and making new friends recently. Quite the contrary actually. Did you happen to smoke a lot of marijuana before this onset? I really think the intense reflection I do while high led to my conscious mind getting stuck somehow... I am just theorizing though.
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AlexandrB 5684 days ago
I did not smoke marijuana, but I tend to fall into a state of intense reflection when I'm stressed and at some point I wasn't able to come back out even though the stress went away.

My biggest cause of stress is procrastination. When I put off things I need to do I stress myself out and then start down this path - maybe that's why the todo list thing helped.

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