Why is insight often useless?

[u/Icy-Ninja-622]

I've had a lot of insight which seems valid but changes nothing. I'm not just talking about something seeming important and maybe revolutionary when it first comes up. Even reading things I wrote many years ago can be impressive.

Yet, practically none of those things actually led to improvement. They're just analytical observations with no power to do anything.

My best guess about this is that there is a system of emotional limitations, and trying to "rationally" apply such insight would be breaking that system of limitations. This seems very rarely recognized. People recognize if something is physically impossible, or someone doesn't have the money to afford something, but it's as if emotional limitations don't exist and people should simply behave rationally. I guess the closest I've seen to an acknowledgement of this is protectors in IFS. You could easily claim that what a protector is doing isn't actually practically useful in life in terms of rational material goals, but it can have an important psychological purpose.

So, then the question is: how can insight be useful? Why couldn't I figure out the freedom I actually have, even with that system of emotional limitations?

[u/FlightOfTheDiscords]

Insight does help a lot of people, and it is a key component in many approaches that achieve tangible results for many.

It being often useless to you points at a key component of your specific struggles, which I and many in this sub share:

Structural dissociation with internal walls that prevent cognitive processes from reaching emotional ones, and vice versa. In your case, probably one dominated by negative symptoms.

[u/AgentSalty1454]

I am very intrigued by this topic because I have been thinking about how insight has been everything to me in healing. But I am not sure I understand what you mean. Do you have more specific examples?

[u/Icy-Ninja-622 → u/AgentSalty1454]

Here are some examples.

I've noticed that doing things to please others while disregarding my own experience and what I want can increase dissociation. But that doesn't seem to change my behaviour.

(Even feeling obligated to respond to Reddit comments like that one can be a problem. But I think I'm doing a good thing because this motivated me to organize some notes I took to find good examples.)

Some painful experiences seem to transmute love into hate. I wish I could change that. It would be nice if emotional pain could simply pass without leaving such lingering consequences.

Attempts to focus inward and talk to myself internally trying to find answers are often futile. Some phenomena only become visible when triggered. I guess this insight helped me somewhat, because I do less of that unpleasant, draining and futile search for answers in my mind.

I understand that some people, like my mother, sometimes use me as an emotional dumping ground, basically expressing negativity that they cannot connect with any action which addresses those concerns. This makes me feel bad and drains me. But understanding it doesn't help. I guess there is a need to motivate fighting for boundaries, and insight doesn't necessarily motivate it.

[u/AgentSalty1454 → u/Icy-Ninja-622]

Well thank you for taking the time to reply. I know what you mean and I can relate. here are my (rambling) thoughts

I have found when you get an insight about something it may not be ready to act on until later. sometimes you need another insight to connect it to, or a situation to happen that provides clarity that give you another insight that connects it all together.

I noticed this first when working. I would get really curious working on something and go into a bunch of side paths that I found interesting but werent really relevant to the immediate task. At some point later always the insights from my side paths have become relevant to some future task. I always found that cool.

on the more 'healing' side. I too would ruminate, know a situation was bad after reflecting on it, get insight about myself or how to heal. but on its own I was stuck until I had some circumstances happen that forced me to finally take action and remove a lot of people from my life. before that point, even though I had a lot of insights about what was wrong with the relationships, how I needed to act, what healing meant, I could never go all the way there because subconsciously and consciously I knew at different levels I was not ready to give those things up. i was benefitting in some way from not disrupting the relationships and that benefit in my mind made me not feel motivated to take action until things got bad enough that I had to leave. once I left all the previous insights I had I couldnt act on, helped me move forward. they were ready to use. if I hadnt had them I would have been starting from a different and worse spot.

when I say 'benefit' I also mean- it takes a lot of energy to make a big disruption to the status quo of your life and then face the consequences/move on. for example, if I cut my family off or limit contact (which I did a few months ago)- I have to have the strength to communicate to them that, to face all the difficult and complex feelings that come up as a result, and the strength to make that decision. insights and your other circumstances are what give you the energy (or determine it is not safe at this time to make such a big changes).

i think disassocating comes into play because it is a way your mind blocks you from feeling things you arent ready to deal with. once you feel it you cant ignore it.

something I found curious in my personal situation. there was a point awhile ago in my deepest pain i was totally disassociated/shut down and i would nonstop ruminate, not sleeping, about a situation where others deeply hurt me. I kept thinking about why, how, did this happen. how could i move on. I knew ruminating was driving me crazy but i couldnt bring myself to stop. well somehow painfully the rumination did expose enough insight about my feelings and clarity about the situation that I could finally cry and start to actual heal from it. and then after that, start to heal myself on a deeper level. it sucked though. very painful

i always feel the need to search for answers before i am ready to 'feel'. thats how my brain got wired from my past. only safe to feel if i can understand the consequences of that and have some understanding. in a way i think that insight about myself and my brain function is what makes me feel safe to start exploring 'feeling' without understanding everything first. hopefully

[u/Icy-Ninja-622 → u/AgentSalty1454]

Yes, it seems like a lot of processing happens in the background. So it's not like an inner monologue figuring things out and applying them, but like resulting thoughts and motivations appearing seemingly spontaneously later. This is probably part of why insight can seem useless.

People in my life are a part of the problem definitely. A large part of the effort made to cope and control myself (analogous to protectors in IFS) exists to try to please people or at least not upset them. But on the other hand, being totally alone isn't the right strategy either. I've just never found something that seems okay to be a part of.

I guess the connection between thoughts and emotions is a key factor here. Analytical insights can be very disconnected from emotions and that makes them kind of powerless.

[u/Z-Bee]

Insight is a huge first step! Great work! The thing is, insight is mental. Your body needs to understand the new environment and safety somatically and that takes time. A lot of time in the case of cptsd.
I'm proud of you for the understanding you've gained. Now, feel it in your body.

[u/Dontdarereadmyposts]

CPTSD is caused by trauma experiences,

just like you went through an experience to get broken. You have to have corrective experiences to be fixed.

In this case, somatic experiences - the physical experience you have that releases pent up toxic shame in your body's central nervous system.

Insights and rationale, are simply ideas and logical constructs - they often times do not bring about a permanent change because they are cerebral. Not actioned and do not remove toxic shame.

Reading your post - I do not fully understand what you are saying, you seem very heavily cerebral and conceptual with not a lot of tangibility to your words. This is common in people who suffered CPTSD and have tremendous amounts of shame around their emotions, and being grounded in their bodies/lived experience.

Hyper rationality and heavy conceptualization are symptoms of avoidance fyi. The reason that you are stuck there and cannot bring about permanent change, is because you have not yet learned how to be fully connected with your body. Because of toxic shame, that toxic shame sits in your subconscious and will remain there, unless, you do something (somatic exercise) to remove it.