There’s a War Goin’ on Inside, Everything You See and Hear Pokes Holes in Your Mind
In There’s a War Goin’ on Outside, That’s Just the Way It Is, I addressed the song “Survival of the Fittest” by duo Mobb Deep (lyricists Havoc and the late Prodigy), in which it’s stated that “there’s a war goin’ on outside, no man is safe from.” It’s a classic hip hop track!
Now, within that blogpost, I also stated, “As expressed by Mobb Deep, warlike conditions can exist in settings outside of formally declared warzones or areas of conflict.” For context, one source states:
War is an armed conflict between the armed forces of states, or between governmental forces and armed groups that are organized under a certain command structure and have the capacity to sustain military operations, or between such organized groups.
It is generally characterized by widespread violence, destruction, and mortality, using regular or irregular military forces. War aims typically involve the pursuit of political, economic, or territorial objectives.
Warfare refers to the common activities and characteristics of types of war, or of wars in general. Total war is warfare that is not restricted to purely legitimate military targets, and can result in massive civilian or other non-combatant suffering and casualties.
Because I maintain that the words we use matter, I don’t care much for terms such as “war” used outside of the aforementioned description. Nevertheless, I keep a flexible view of claims such as “there’s a war goin’ on outside,” as it regards non-armed conflict zones (i.e., hyperbole).
For example, on the album Future Reminiscent (2020), by trio Barbaydose (lyricists WeIntheCloud, Bsidez and Hiright), on the song “Wisemen”, it’s stated that “there’s a war goin’ on inside, everything you see and hear pokes holes in your mind.” For context, the American Psychological Association (APA) defines mind as:
[A]ll intellectual and psychological phenomena of an organism, encompassing motivational, affective, behavioral, perceptual, and cognitive systems; that is, the organized totality of an organism’s mental and psychic processes and the structural and functional cognitive components on which they depend.
With this clarification, Barbaydose claims that everything you see (to perceive by the eye) and hear (to perceive by the ear) pokes holes (openings through something) in the mind. In this proverbial way, a “war goin’ on inside” regards one’s self-awareness.
For context, the APA defines self-awareness as “self-focused attention or knowledge.” Regarding a proverbial war within one’s mind, concerning axiomatic holes poked from both external and internal awareness, I encourage you to reject a disempowering view of life.
When practicing Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy (REBT), I use personal responsibility and accountability (collectively “ownership”). For improved understanding, responsibility is defined as the quality or state of being responsible, such as a moral, legal, or mental accountability.
Here, “responsible” is defined as liable to be called to account as the primary cause, motive, or agent, and being able to answer for one’s conduct and obligations—something, such as the demands of conscience or custom, that obligates one to a course of action.
Also, “accountable” is defined as subject to giving an account—a statement explaining one’s conduct. Accountability is defined as the quality or state of being accountable, especially regarding an obligation or willingness to accept responsibility or to account for one’s actions.
When providing psychoeducational lessons on REBT, a psychotherapeutic modality which arguably requires that one preferably should take personal ownership in order to reduce self-distress or self-disturbance, I lean heavily on both responsibility and accountability.
This is because I maintain that people have personal agency (a person’s ability to control one’s own reactions to activating events which are beyond one’s own dominion, especially when one’s response is limited by someone or something else). This is a matter of self-empowerment.
REBT uses the ABC model to illustrate that when an undesirable Action occurs and you Believe an unhelpful narrative about the event, it’s your unfavorable assumption, not the occurrence itself, that causes an unpleasant Consequence. This is known as distress or disturbance.
Noteworthy, with virtually any undesirable Action that occurs, it’s your unfavorable Beliefs which cause unpleasant distress or disturbance (Consequence). Given this framing of self-distress and self-disturbance, it’s worth noting that one REBT source states (page 71):
REBT conceptualizes [distress] as healthy even though it is intense. Other approaches to therapy have as their goal the reduction of the intensity of negative emotions. They take this position because they do not keenly differentiate between healthy negative emotions (distress) and unhealthy negative emotions (disturbance).
Now, REBT keenly distinguishes between healthy distress and unhealthy disturbance. Healthy distress stems from your rational beliefs about a negative activating event [Action], whilst disturbance stems from your irrational beliefs about the same event.
Complete elimination of distress is highly unlikely in an impermanent and uncertain world, wherein people conceptually suffer, struggle, and battle with, or merely experience hardship. Still, individuals often make matters worse for themselves by disturbing about such instances.
In particular, there are four predominate irrational beliefs which people often use to distress or disturb themselves: global evaluations, low frustration tolerance, awfulizing, and demandingness. When contemplating these unproductive scripts, think of the acronym GLAD.
Additionally, from a psychological standpoint, people distress or disturb themselves using a Belief-Consequence (B-C) connection. Of course, this isn’t to suggest that in the context of the naturalistic or physical world there is no Action-Consequence (A-C) connection.
From an A-C view, you see and hear things (Action), as you become aware of external matters (Consequence). Nevertheless, concerning internal matters, a B-C connection regarding self-awareness is how people often disturb themselves.
For instance, you hear an offensive comment about your appearance (Action), Believe, “The person making the remark is useless [G], and I can’t abide offensiveness [L], as it’s awful [A], so people mustn’t share offensive opinions [D],” and you then become enraged (Consequence).
Addressing how people upset themselves with unhelpful attitudes, the ABC model incorporates Disputation of unproductive philosophies of life in order to explore Effective new beliefs. Whereas rigid beliefs cause self-disturbance, flexible beliefs result in an un-disturbed condition.
As a matter of personal ownership for a proverbial “war goin’ on inside,” as “everything you see and hear pokes holes in your mind,” the ABC model is a method of filling holes of one’s own making. Now, I invite you to make peace within your mind by leveling your path to rational living.
If you’re looking for a provider who tries to work to help you understand how thinking impacts physical, mental, emotional, and behavioral elements of your life, I invite you to reach out today by using the contact widget on my website.
As the world’s foremost hip hop-influenced REBT psychotherapist, I’m pleased to try to help people with an assortment of issues from anger (hostility, rage, and aggression) to relational issues, adjustment matters, trauma experience, justice involvement, attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder, anxiety and depression, and other mood or personality-related matters.
At Hollings Therapy, LLC, serving all of Texas, I aim to treat clients with dignity and respect while offering a multi-lensed approach to the practice of psychotherapy and life coaching. My mission includes: Prioritizing the cognitive and emotive needs of clients, an overall reduction in client suffering, and supporting sustainable growth for the clients I serve. Rather than simply trying to help you to feel better, I want to try to help you get better!
Deric Hollings, LPC, LCSW
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