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Comment by logjam | Hacker News Reader

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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This. The second sentence is key. I've heard a psychologist describe it as your mind intensely trying to keep you away from the stressor, thus shielding you from it. Of course, sometimes, it's counterproductive or even more painful when this happens, ex: OCD or hypochondria.

So how does one address the root anxiety?

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.

> 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".

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.

ITT: news.ycombinator.com invents the concept of pointer dereferencing in a natural manner.

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