For the gamification one, they tend to involve a bunch of open loops that leave you wanting to resolve (where the cliff hanger is a great example). This causes thoughts regarding the loop to come up spontaneously. In context, the loops aren’t that important, but locally, they may appear more important (like being angry at a loved one for interrupting you or preventing you from finishing a show/chapter/etc). I think being triggered in general here counts. Typical antidotes is the traditional “take a walk” and regarding meditation, better awareness and capacity to let go (not arguing that meditation works here, but may write a post on that)
This is different than cults and abusive relationships, where there is a strong motivation to leave your normal environment (the type of abusive relationship I have in mind is “you can’t see your friends anymore”), making the local rewards and punishments more salient as time goes by. I may even include drugs w/ withdrawals here. The usual solution is leaving those environments for healthier ones to compare against, though this happens in transitions due to ideas coupling (bucket errors). [This feels unsubstantiated to me and would benefit from more specific examples]. The gamification one had two answers: “change environment” or “change your relationship to the environment”. There may be some situations where you’re forced in a horrible environment and your only choice is to change your relationship to your environment, but this would require some high-level meditation insights in my opinion. “Leaving” seems the most actionable response. Maybe “recognizing” you’re in a cult is an important vein for future thought.
The identity based will cause ignoring/flinching from incompatible thoughts. This may benefit from becoming more sensitive to subtle thoughts you typically ignore (noticing confusions was a similar process for me). I feel like meditating relates, but I’m unsure on the mechanism. It’s mumble mumble everything is empty mumble.
There’s also a thread on “horrible events cause you to realize what’s important” to look into.
For the gamification one, they tend to involve a bunch of open loops that leave you wanting to resolve (where the cliff hanger is a great example). This causes thoughts regarding the loop to come up spontaneously. In context, the loops aren’t that important, but locally, they may appear more important (like being angry at a loved one for interrupting you or preventing you from finishing a show/chapter/etc). I think being triggered in general here counts. Typical antidotes is the traditional “take a walk” and regarding meditation, better awareness and capacity to let go (not arguing that meditation works here, but may write a post on that)
This is different than cults and abusive relationships, where there is a strong motivation to leave your normal environment (the type of abusive relationship I have in mind is “you can’t see your friends anymore”), making the local rewards and punishments more salient as time goes by. I may even include drugs w/ withdrawals here. The usual solution is leaving those environments for healthier ones to compare against, though this happens in transitions due to ideas coupling (bucket errors). [This feels unsubstantiated to me and would benefit from more specific examples]. The gamification one had two answers: “change environment” or “change your relationship to the environment”. There may be some situations where you’re forced in a horrible environment and your only choice is to change your relationship to your environment, but this would require some high-level meditation insights in my opinion. “Leaving” seems the most actionable response. Maybe “recognizing” you’re in a cult is an important vein for future thought.
The identity based will cause ignoring/flinching from incompatible thoughts. This may benefit from becoming more sensitive to subtle thoughts you typically ignore (noticing confusions was a similar process for me). I feel like meditating relates, but I’m unsure on the mechanism. It’s mumble mumble everything is empty mumble.
There’s also a thread on “horrible events cause you to realize what’s important” to look into.