This is something I have really been wrestling with lately. I know I have many things to be done, but not doing them is not an option. Why is it not an option? Because the task is eminent in my path of action anyway, and if I choose not to do it, there will be a deficit in some form or fashion in my life trajectory because the task all ready had some relationship to me that I cannot break without severing the tie; however, as much as I’d like to believe, it is not a clean break.
I’d also like to discuss injury and chronic pain. I played American Football and wrestled in my high school years (as well as a year of football in college) and I have also been in a car wreck where my body was injured in a few places that could not feasibly be medically treated; both of these contribute to chronic pain in several areas of my body. Now, the pain is nothing I cannot work through, and it has taught me to be more careful with myself, but I can’t help but feel that for every instance of acknowledgement of pain, my cognitive resources are being pulled away from other subjects that I may find of greater importance. In each iteration of an idea, there is a building process, but if the building process is interrupted by something it can cause the idea to lose its inert force, right? So the occurrence of chronic pain, in my experience, can cause tiny rifts in coherent cognitive thought, because the pain is taking a cognitive-resource from what would normally be a different cognitive process. However, I am not sure how significant this really is, because the momentary lapse in concentration may not be enough to considerably derail the thought, and working with the chronic pain may allow a greater focus to be gained, though I am really not sure. The construction of coherent thought that builds on itself has always been of great interest to me, though I feel there are many complex variables involved, and I haven’t even touched on biological factors such as the interplay of cortisol levels with cognitive processes or other aspects I may be overlooking.
Not quite the same as what you are talking about, but I felt the supplanting of focused thought-instances with detracting thought-instances was in some way parallel to the idea of non-action still being a choice, albeit negative when in reference to one’s necessary task completion.
Edit: Changed instance to importance. Was that merely an unconscious word swap or was it due to distraction?
I think you’re right—I don’t know what the concensus is, but I certainly found studies just googling around and looking at webmd saying that chronic pain can impair focus and even effect memory (I’m guessing it disrupts encoding a little when there are sharp pains?). And I’ve heard you can use training to overcome focus difficulties that come with ADHD, so I think that in general you should be able to train yourself to think through it.
http://www.springerlink.com/content/r436401lvj873203/ “Characteristics of Cognitive Functions in Patients With Chronic Spinal Pain”
http://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/springer/jcogp/1999/00000013/00000003/art00004
“Cognitive Therapy in the Treatment of Adults With ADHD: A Systematic Chart Review of 26 Cases ”
This is something I have really been wrestling with lately. I know I have many things to be done, but not doing them is not an option. Why is it not an option? Because the task is eminent in my path of action anyway, and if I choose not to do it, there will be a deficit in some form or fashion in my life trajectory because the task all ready had some relationship to me that I cannot break without severing the tie; however, as much as I’d like to believe, it is not a clean break.
I’d also like to discuss injury and chronic pain. I played American Football and wrestled in my high school years (as well as a year of football in college) and I have also been in a car wreck where my body was injured in a few places that could not feasibly be medically treated; both of these contribute to chronic pain in several areas of my body. Now, the pain is nothing I cannot work through, and it has taught me to be more careful with myself, but I can’t help but feel that for every instance of acknowledgement of pain, my cognitive resources are being pulled away from other subjects that I may find of greater importance. In each iteration of an idea, there is a building process, but if the building process is interrupted by something it can cause the idea to lose its inert force, right? So the occurrence of chronic pain, in my experience, can cause tiny rifts in coherent cognitive thought, because the pain is taking a cognitive-resource from what would normally be a different cognitive process. However, I am not sure how significant this really is, because the momentary lapse in concentration may not be enough to considerably derail the thought, and working with the chronic pain may allow a greater focus to be gained, though I am really not sure. The construction of coherent thought that builds on itself has always been of great interest to me, though I feel there are many complex variables involved, and I haven’t even touched on biological factors such as the interplay of cortisol levels with cognitive processes or other aspects I may be overlooking.
Not quite the same as what you are talking about, but I felt the supplanting of focused thought-instances with detracting thought-instances was in some way parallel to the idea of non-action still being a choice, albeit negative when in reference to one’s necessary task completion.
Edit: Changed instance to importance. Was that merely an unconscious word swap or was it due to distraction?
I think you’re right—I don’t know what the concensus is, but I certainly found studies just googling around and looking at webmd saying that chronic pain can impair focus and even effect memory (I’m guessing it disrupts encoding a little when there are sharp pains?). And I’ve heard you can use training to overcome focus difficulties that come with ADHD, so I think that in general you should be able to train yourself to think through it. http://www.springerlink.com/content/r436401lvj873203/ “Characteristics of Cognitive Functions in Patients With Chronic Spinal Pain” http://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/springer/jcogp/1999/00000013/00000003/art00004 “Cognitive Therapy in the Treatment of Adults With ADHD: A Systematic Chart Review of 26 Cases ”