Everyone knows that we have a blind spot. But we can’t tell unless we do those cute blind spot tricks with the dot and cross. So why don’t we ever notice it before? Well, your eye can’t really see it, even though you think that you can. Your brain actually makes that spot up. It takes in your surroundings and composes that spot as a guess of what it really would look like if you were to look at it directly. But that, I think, is not always true. After learning this, I realized that some peoples brains aren’t always the same. When it comes to mental disorders, I believe this blind spot has something to do with it.
If somebody has a disorder where they think that they see or hear things, we know that the mind is making it up. But it most likely is happening in that blind spot. The made up image is not right, bringing back other scary associations from the memory. Everything in the mind can be associated unconsciously to other things. You may not remember something that happened to you when you were ten years old. But it unconsciously arises when there is a trigger. And this trigger could be anything.
Personally, I see a shadow in my blind spot. When I move too quickly, it brings back a memory from a dream years ago that surrounded me in scary shadows. That movement quickly triggers in my brain that the shadow is a threat. It’s unconscious, so I can’t help it. That is what gives me my panic and anxiety. It may very well have started with that small blind spot.
So a good way that I have learned to slightly control it, is make up something else. Force your mind to think of something that won’t make you jump, but smile. Whenever I see that shadow now, I change it to a highlight; a bright angel watching over me rather than a dark demon trying to capture me. But that can’t always work. If I’m already in a bad or scared mood, it has the opposite effect. But closing my eyes can help. I pretend to shoot everything away and that I’m the star hero in a movie. It’s a little dramatic, I know. But it sure does work!
For less threatening situations, it would probably be easier to just forget about it. Let it make you jump for a second, then let it go away. Even though this one little blind spot could have started the chain reaction of other mental disorders, it can’t be the whole cause. But how can we truly ever know?
Jessica's Perspective 