Fablehaven Book 2, Tanu, a potions master has Seth and Kendra try "bottled emotions"
Seth chose fear, and as the potion set in, he was convinced Tanu had poisoned him.
After Seth phased out of the potion, he told Tanu he really was convinced Tanu had poisoned him. The Potion Master than taught: "Your mind was searching for threats to justify the emotion."
I've seen this in withdrawal from drug dependence, food dependence, porn dependence, etc. These come from using "bread and circus" for a fake escape from problems. Escape from problems instead of working through them only cause a build up of problems, which in itself becomes a problem
Example: say someone who can walk but is afraid to start to use a wheel chair. If they continue, their leg muscles begin to atrophy. With enough time and repetition, they would become unable to walk. They would literally cripple themselves.
Anytime we use anything to hide from an emotion we aren't ready to deal with, those emotions get buried. Soon, we use the fake escape every time we feel that emotion, and might even seek out that emotion anytime we get a craving for what ever fake escape we've chosen.
If someone runs from anger using video games, they become angrier and angrier overall. Games they chose become increasingly violent, and they start looking for reasons to be angry when in the mood for a game. And if you take away their controller, whoa, do they get angry. All the past anger, sought out anger, and current anger start to come out--at the same time.
Kind of like when a computer freezes, you might type or use the mouse, trying to get it to work. Then when it unfreezes, all the commands funnel through at the same time, and lots of things happen that you didn't intend for.
I call it the stapler effect, named after a stressed out teacher who decides to hold off on caffeine. As she gets ready for her next class to start, the stapler jams. On a normal day, she would look at it, open it, remove the jammed staple, and then continue on with stapling. But on the day where she's passed up not just her first usual cup of coffee, but her second and third, she's now shaking and flustered, and prone to whacking the stapler over and over, trying to get it to work.
She feels super stressed to the point she's now losing it, and her mind is convinced the reason why is the stapler. Her co-workers and students know better and more likely than not go fetch her a cup of coffee.
Seth chose fear, and as the potion set in, he was convinced Tanu had poisoned him.
After Seth phased out of the potion, he told Tanu he really was convinced Tanu had poisoned him. The Potion Master than taught: "Your mind was searching for threats to justify the emotion."
I've seen this in withdrawal from drug dependence, food dependence, porn dependence, etc. These come from using "bread and circus" for a fake escape from problems. Escape from problems instead of working through them only cause a build up of problems, which in itself becomes a problem
Example: say someone who can walk but is afraid to start to use a wheel chair. If they continue, their leg muscles begin to atrophy. With enough time and repetition, they would become unable to walk. They would literally cripple themselves.
Anytime we use anything to hide from an emotion we aren't ready to deal with, those emotions get buried. Soon, we use the fake escape every time we feel that emotion, and might even seek out that emotion anytime we get a craving for what ever fake escape we've chosen.
If someone runs from anger using video games, they become angrier and angrier overall. Games they chose become increasingly violent, and they start looking for reasons to be angry when in the mood for a game. And if you take away their controller, whoa, do they get angry. All the past anger, sought out anger, and current anger start to come out--at the same time.
Kind of like when a computer freezes, you might type or use the mouse, trying to get it to work. Then when it unfreezes, all the commands funnel through at the same time, and lots of things happen that you didn't intend for.
I call it the stapler effect, named after a stressed out teacher who decides to hold off on caffeine. As she gets ready for her next class to start, the stapler jams. On a normal day, she would look at it, open it, remove the jammed staple, and then continue on with stapling. But on the day where she's passed up not just her first usual cup of coffee, but her second and third, she's now shaking and flustered, and prone to whacking the stapler over and over, trying to get it to work.
She feels super stressed to the point she's now losing it, and her mind is convinced the reason why is the stapler. Her co-workers and students know better and more likely than not go fetch her a cup of coffee.
