Last Updated on February 13, 2023 by Mike Robinson
Psychological reversal is a form of subliminal self-defeating behavior. If you have noticed in your life that sometimes, just as you are in the process of achieving something that you want, you manage to end up ruining it, it may be that you have been operating in a state of psychological reversal. You will find achieving and maintaining success more challenging if your subconscious mind focuses on thwarting your accomplishments.
This article will answer many of your questions about this phenomenon. It will provide real-life examples to which most people can relate. Additional information will include the possible symptoms and types of successful treatments.
Where Did the Term “Psychological Reversal” Originate?
Roger Callahan, a psychologist who came up with a treatment called “thought field therapy,” saw that some patients didn’t seem to respond to his methods. Most people found that specific interventions helped them deal with their psychological stress. However, some people didn’t seem to benefit from them as much or for as long. He looked into this problem, came up with the term “psychological reversal,” and looked for ways to get around it so that his treatments could still work.
Psychological reversal and self-sabotage both have the same meaning and refer to an individual’s subliminal self-defeating behavior.
How to Tell if Someone Suffers from Psychological Reversal
Psychological reversal happens to everyone at different times and to varying degrees. When you make “dumb mistakes,” act against your known better interests, avoid and procrastinate persistently, or repeatedly fail to resolve or overcome obstacles, you are most likely affected by psychological reversal.
Symptoms of Psychological Reversal
- Your repeated attempts to solve a problem are unsuccessful. You think you have finally put an issue behind you, but after a while, the problem returns as if it never left.
- You act in ways that hurt yourself (doing things against your desired goals or best interests).
- You struggle to change your undesirable habits.
- Negative thoughts dominate your thinking no matter how hard you try to stop them.
Psychological Reversal and the Brain
Psychological reversal can change how people think, feel, act, and judge. The brain and nervous system have patterns and points of reference for figuring out where they are in space. Psychological reversal is a type of neural disorganization that mixes up reference points and orientation, blocking energy flow along neural pathways.
Let’s say you were trying to lose weight by eating healthy. But you have a bowl of ice cream and pie every night after dinner. You know this is not the proper diet to lose weight, but it is as if your mind is telling you it is the proper way. That is how psychological reversals throw off how the body and mind find their way.
Real-Life Examples of Psychological Reversal
Here are examples where the individual may be working hard to achieve something good (in the area where psychological reversal occurs). But if you dig beneath the surface, you will discover that they usually find a way to sabotage their efforts.
Self-sabotaging your relationships
Every time you are in a meaningful relationship, you tell yourself you won’t be so critical of every little thing. Being overly critical is what caused most of your previous relationships to fail. But as soon as things start going well, you revert to critiquing every little thing they do. Eventually, they can’t take it anymore and break off the relationship.
Psychological Reversal at Work
Throughout your career, you have never risen to the level you want and feel you deserve. Whenever you are on track to achieve this goal, psychological reversal takes place in the following ways:
- Showing up to work or meetings unprepared.
- Procrastinating on your assignments. This causes them to be late or of poor quality.
- Poor attendance practices ( being late or absent more than usual).
- Doing the minimum requirements for the job. Never doing extra work or helping others with their tasks.
Impact on Your Financial Future
We’ve all heard stories of someone hitting the lottery for millions of dollars, and within ten years, they are broke (again). This is the power or psychological reversal. Their subconscious mind is programmed to feel comfortable with small amounts of money. Therefore, they engage in reckless living and spending habits instead of investing and growing their income. Within a short period, they have blown all of their winnings.
Psychological reversal is likely the cause for these results. Your subconscious mind pulls you back to a financial level that makes you comfortable. Various factors could cause this self-sabotaging behavior.
Let’s examine a few of the more common causes of psychological reversal.
Causes of Psychological Reversal
Psychologically reversed people have subconscious barriers that keep them from being happy. They don’t want to let go of their fears, depression, addictions, or anger, which are all signs of emotional distress. They hang on to these emotions because that is who they are. Sometimes people become so accustomed to these negative emotions that they feel uncomfortable in situations where more positive emotions are present.
Like many psychological conditions, the origin of psychological reversal varies from person to person. But there are a few common causes that researchers agree on that account for most cases.
Childhood Experiences
Most of our opinions about ourselves form at an early age. Therefore, what our parents and teachers tell us about ourselves impacts our self-beliefs.
Here’s an example. While growing up, you felt you were not good, smart, or skilled enough. These feelings can come from what those around you have accomplished and their outlook on life in general. This is called vicarious learning and plays a significant role in our adolescent development.
If your parents were uneducated and spent their lives struggling in low-paying jobs, it can also affect your life. For example, low self-esteem could result from growing up in certain environments. That low self-esteem is likely the root cause of your psychological reversal.
Past Traumatic Experiences
Sometimes we treat people in ways they don’t deserve. For example, maybe your parents were divorced when you were young. Divorce can be devastating for children. As an adult, you go into each relationship with hope and a feeling that this is the one. But inevitably, you start taking actions that end up ruining it just like the previous ones. In this case, psychological reversal may result from the traumatic experience you had when your parents divorced.
How to Eliminate Psychological Reversal
The first and most crucial step is to acknowledge that there is a problem. Talking with a therapist is always a good idea, but you can also take measures into your own hands and still obtain positive results. Here are a few proven steps to implement that will provide you with the best results.
Start Journaling
Once you acknowledge you’re dealing with psychological reversal, writing down each time you are self-sabotaging can be helpful. Review your journal weekly to identify your related tendencies and what triggers them.
Once you begin to see improvements, continue journaling to track your progress. It won’t be long before you can review your journal and see your progress.
Make Incremental Changes
You can make real progress by taking small incremental steps. Identify the area you need to address first and work just on that. It could be harmful or counterproductive thoughts you get every morning you get ready for work. You realize this is affecting your performance, so you decide to take action to change those thoughts from negative to positive.
When you see how great it is to make small changes over time, you’ll see simple solutions that you have been missing. Over time, even small changes can make a big difference.
Practice Mindfulness and Cognitive Behavior Therapy Techniques
I am a huge supporter of meditation and CBT (Cognitive Behavior Therapy). Since I began practicing meditation three years ago, I have gained tremendous control over my thoughts. What I’ve learned is that thoughts are lies. They are not based on factual information. Yet we continually let them affect how we feel and behave. Learning to control your thoughts is the most critical step to eliminating psychological reversal.
What To Do After Removing Psychological Reversal
How do you know when your psychological reversal is gone? You will be able to tell a big difference in your thought patterns. Situations that used to produce self-sabotaging thoughts in the past may still produce similar thoughts. The difference will be your ability to let those thoughts come and go without acting on them.
That is the power of meditation and CBT techniques. You will learn to recognize those thoughts and react differently than you had in the past. You must continue to perform the actions taken to eliminate the effects of psychological reversal. The good news is that these techniques will continue to benefit you in many other areas of your life.
Conclusion
Psychological reversal represents the formation of self-sabotage because the individual’s thoughts and subsequent actions have shifted from sustaining happiness to sustaining unhappiness.
People experience psychological reversal when a significant part of their lives, careers, romantic relationships, or financial situations flourish. This leads them to take action that, in the end, sabotages their lives and returns them to their comfort zone. They set themselves up for failure so that they could experience the misery their subconscious mind desired all along.
The good news is that psychological reversal is not difficult to eliminate. Once the person no longer has psychological reversal, they become happy with success instead of content with failure. Chances are good that person will be able to keep feeling happy, upbeat, and successful in all areas of life.
