Brain Dumping Can Lesson Your Anxiety

Feeling overwhelmed is no way to live

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We’ve all been overwhelmed at different points in our lives. The stress from life’s numerous pressures weighing down on our heads. The sensation we’re being pulled in a million different directions. The anxiety produced from the fear that something will slip through the cracks.

• Work
• Family
• Health

You name it. It all adds up.

For those of us with Huntington disease (HD), this kind of pressure can be a trigger for a mental health crisis. Are there strategies to help with this feeling of being overwhelmed?

Absolutely. Here’s one. Let me introduce you to a process which has helped me in my HD journey many times: brain dumping.

Brain Dumping

I know, what on Earth is brain dumping? Believe it or not, there’s an official definition in Merriam-Webster. They define brain dumping as:

…the act or an instance of comprehensively and uncritically expressing and recording one’s thoughts and ideas.

Alright, well, that sounds like a fancy dictionary’s take on a definition, doesn’t it? The concept is pretty straightforward, though. Get those thoughts and tasks and to-dos and ideas, out of your head and into some other system, whether that be a phone application or a piece of paper. Then, you can deal with them later without the fear you’ll forget within the next five minutes.

It’s that simple!

From a Huntington disease perspective

Humans are not really meant to multitask. Trying to manage multiple projects at once, all while juggling a long list of tasks, is a recipe for disaster. Throwing Huntington disease into the mix does not help.

It’s not uncommon for those of us with HD to feel a great deal of added anxiety and panic when new issues pop up and more is added to our plate. Especially if it’s unexpected or our routine is being broken. I know for me, even the addition of a seemingly simple task like walking the dog, when I’m trying to make the kids lunches and get them out the door for school, can push me into an angry place.

Where to dump?

Regular brain dumping into my favorite, trusted phone application has been a life-changer. When I’m out and about, the minute I have a new thought, like, “oh crap, I have to call the pharmacy to renew a medication,” I’ll take out my phone and write that down in a note app. I don’t worry about getting into my calendar or typing it out in a task manager.

No.

Just write the note and put the phone away. You can review your notes at a more comfortable time later. Then, you can move the task to a more appropriate place in whatever system you choose to organize your schedule, or just complete the task right then if it’s only going to take a couple of minutes.

Empty that head!

I regularly take time for a session of brain dumping. Sitting at the table with a hot coffee and open note in front of me, I’ll just start emptying my head. Whatever comes to mind, it gets written down.

• Haircut
• I think that truck needs an oil change
• Brain dumping would be a great blog post
• I should write more blog posts
• We need coffee filters
• I should call Dave

Ahhhh, my stress just flows away…

Steven Beatty is a writer and former registered nurse. He lives in Central Ontario, Canada with his wife and two fantastic kids. He’s on Facebook and Twitter @stevenbeatty. Steve is the author of the book In-Between Years: Life after a positive Huntington’s disease test and is a blogger here on Medium.