
Obsession - ajdecon
http://www.johndcook.com/blog/2012/06/11/obsession/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+TheEndeavour+%28The+Endeavour%29
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gulbrandr
Please do not post links with utm junk in the URL. Thank you.

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posabsolute
wow a 3 paragraphs article make it top on hacker news...

Think I need a more underground source of articles now, nothing interesting in
that article beside some irks about publishing "worthless" scientific paper

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logjam
Obsessive thought in a psychological sense is often a symptom of anxiety. The
intense focus of the obsession may be completely unrelated to the source of
anxiety. Often a compulsive behavior provides relief for the anxiety, without,
of course, ever addressing the root anxiety.

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zxcvvcxz
So how does one address the root anxiety?

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johnchristopher
By adressing not the anxiety itself but the root _of_ anxiety. For minor
problems it should suffice. I strongly suggest to reach for professionnal help
though if anxiety is delibitating in any way. Be very cautious with internet
advice and the self-help dev. movement.

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xdialog
> By adressing not the anxiety itself but the root of anxiety.

It is better to address anxiety itself because then one does not have to
address the root of each and every anxiety that props up.

Note that I wrote "anxiety" and not "the anxiety".

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johnchristopher
Unfortunately it doesn't seem to be working in the long term for every
manifestation of anxiety (not talking OCD here).

Moreover, you'll get different burst of anxiety that are going to pile up,
even if you adress them individually but with the same method ; you'll be
mentally exhausted way sooner and way more often than if you had worked on the
root.

Of course if the _root_ is one of the 80's wave of imaginary parental incest
abuses it's a different matter.

