Has MA made you paranoid??

[AceHBK]

Have you beocme more paranoid since taking MA? Seems like once you start taking a MA you train hard just to make sure you are prepared for whatever may happen. Have you ever noticed that it has made you a little too paranoid?? Always thinking someone is out to get you?

I ask b/c a friend of mine who did MA's for years said that he doesn't train much anymore. He says lightly he may practice something but not like he use too. He said simply " I am not longer worrying about being attacked every day. No need conditioning my hands everyday, risking arthritis and other things b/c always looking for someone to attack me. As great as MA's are, it can make the best man paranoid."

 

[Josh Oakley]

Actually it's had the opposite effect for me. I worry a lot less and I DON'T think everyone's out to get me.

 

[searcher]

Yes, I am a raging torrent of paranoia.

 

[jks9199]

No -- Martial arts didn't make me paranoid. The people who are out to get me made me paranoid!

Seriously... there are lots of reasons to train. Self defense is only one of them -- and doesn't have to be the only or main one. And there are plenty of so-called paranoid folks out there that constantly expect to be attacked by criminals who have never studied a martial art..

 

[Archangel M]

NO! Im not paranoid. Who thinks im paranoid? Well Im not IM NOT!

 

[Bill Mattocks]

Paranoid? No. It's made me schizophrenic. No, I'm not. Yes, I am. Shut up and let him talk!

 

[IcemanSK]

When I started & the 1st few years of my training I was quite paranoid.

"Didn't want to need to use my deadly skills," * He says in a very Barney Fife-kinda way.*

It took a few years for me to lighten up a bit.

 

[Spartan 117]

No, I don't think I've become paranoid cause of MA. Training has given me a lot of benefits, like...Hey........ wait just a sec..Why are you asking that? You´re up to somethin' aint' you? Why are you all of sudden asking that???:armed:

 

[Gordon Nore]

I think people who are paranoid may be drawn to martial arts. Good training ought to turn paranoia and fear into alertness and good sense.

 

[seasoned]

My wife thinks so. I feel some of the things I do are only common sense. Like see who is following me, or always looking out the window at night.

 

[tellner]

These practices certainly change you, especially if you have unintegrated values or mixed experiences with violence, aggression, personal physical power or the fragility of life. Some of the changes are long-lasting. Some of them are dramatic. Others are not apparent or go away if you abandon your practice.

Increased awareness of violence is very common. You're spending time learning how to be more effectively violent. You're learning to deal with violence directed at you. Of course it's going to be a larger part of your consciousness.

We construct our psychic landscape through stories. The stories in class are mostly related to fighting or learning to fight.

We model our behavior on the people around us, especially the ones with higher status within our groups. You're part of a group that is held together by a shared interest in the subject, and you pattern yourself after people who are particularly good at it.

The body conditions the mind at least as much as the other way around. The way you move is being repatterened around violence.

Some people aren't comfortable with this and either leave martial arts entirely or drift towards groups which stay away from these issues and the changes they compel. That's why for instance the "It's just Taoist health exercises" schools of Taiji and the "O-Sensei tells us that if you take part in a fight you have already lost" threads in Aikido are so popular.

Other people just get way too into the whole blood and bones aspect. You know the type. There's the Mall Ninja and the guy who touches himself while he thinks of the seventy nine ways he has learned to kill someone with a toothpick. If a person is basically mistrustful or sadistic those predispositions may be heightened.

Fortunately both of these non-productive and really rather silly extremes are temporary. The tendency comes and goes with the development of new capabilities and as perspectives change. Eventually the experience is integrated, and one moves on. As long as one is growing and in a decent social environment the usual pattern is for a return to a healthy balance. The balance may be very different than where one started. It will certainly include increased awareness of violence and an attitude towards it which is more rooted in shared experience and competence than in fear of the unknown.

An advantages of acquiring a little skill in this area is that one becomes more sensitive to it. Having something explained is hit or miss. Seeing makes an impression. Direct physical and emotional experience, especially from having actively done, causes lasting changes. One becomes more aware of threats and the tendency towards violence in others. Whether this is paranoia or simply a clearer view of the world depends on the level of risk one assigns to the data and how accurate the impression is.

There's also a level of play? simulation? trying out the new tools? Something like that anyway. You look at things in light of what you can do and how you would react. If you haven't completely internalized your training and experience they will push themselves forward in your mind. Every crime story in the news becomes a chance to wargame the situation and come up with a better outcome. Every possibility of conflict becomes a sure thing.

Like I said, it generally evens out.

But it appears very different to anyone who hasn't had a similar experience.

I was going to come up with a different example. Heck with it. Think about sex. At one point in your life it didn't exist. Then it was something strange that made grownups act stupid. Then it was a mysterious thing that was going to be important some time Real Soon Now. Then came puberty, first crushes, and everything that went with them. Even if you had the best fact-based theoretical education it didn't prepare you for how it would change nearly everything.

Eventually most people find a way to fit in that part of adult life with the rest and put it in perspective. Some sad few never manage.

Same sort of thing.

 

[arnisador]

I went through the paranoid stage but came out of it OK!

 

[14 Kempo]

My answer is 'No' ... it has made me more aware, it has made me trust my instincts, but it has not made me more paranoid. I feel it has helped me to relax, be even more laid back than I was normally.

 

[Big Don]

No, I have always been paranoid, we all are to some degree... What my time in MA has done is make me better prepared for those of you that ARE out to get me.

 

[MA-Caver]

If I had ANY paranoia it was from before I began my studies in MA. As my skills and experience increased (and continue to do so and definitely could use improvement upon) there has been no real paranoia.
However; if I was paranoid it was for good reason. Living out on the mean streets of several major cities one develops a sense of awareness that is borderline paranoia. But paranoia isn't necessarily always fear. It could be just plain ole' common sense screaming at you that you're going to be in the right place at the wrong time (or is it the other way around?).

If anything MA has given me more confidence that I would ever have had I not taken it up. This thread now makes me grateful to my teachers through the years.

 

[StrongFighter]

This public broadcast courtesy of North Korea is going to get the paranoid folks here in L.A. worked up real good.

The Badass Sons of the USA at Pendleton and the much feared " Men With Green Faces " will be ready to welcome the communist sons of koreans straight to their graves now that we know their commie game plan.

 

[MA-Caver]

You've heard of propaganda haven't you? That's all what that is. The Nazi's did it in the late 30's and early 40's and yes they were a mighty mighty war machine when they first rolled out but lookit what happened?

One of the reasons why we won't stand for them having a nuclear weapon... it's our club over their heads, not the other way around.
It is hoped that China will keep a leash on their little brother country tightly.

 

[StrongFighter]

You've heard of propaganda haven't you? That's all what that is. The Nazi's did it in the late 30's and early 40's and yes they were a mighty mighty war machine when they first rolled out but lookit what happened?

One of the reasons why we won't stand for them having a nuclear weapon... it's our club over their heads, not the other way around.
It is hoped that China will keep a leash on their little brother country tightly.

I know it is propaganda by the commie koreans.

I always laugh whenever I see the vid. :uhyeah:

 

[MJS]

Have you beocme more paranoid since taking MA? Seems like once you start taking a MA you train hard just to make sure you are prepared for whatever may happen. Have you ever noticed that it has made you a little too paranoid?? Always thinking someone is out to get you?

I ask b/c a friend of mine who did MA's for years said that he doesn't train much anymore. He says lightly he may practice something but not like he use too. He said simply " I am not longer worrying about being attacked every day. No need conditioning my hands everyday, risking arthritis and other things b/c always looking for someone to attack me. As great as MA's are, it can make the best man paranoid."

I wouldn't say its made me paranoid, but instead more aware. I find myself, when I'm out, glancing around at various people, and I see how unaware they are of whats going on around them.

IMO, I think simply being aware, is one of the best SD tools that one could have.

 

[Sukerkin]

About the only 'paranoid' aspect that has arisen from my martial arts training is that I now find driving very stressful indeed - all that zanshin awareness of all those unskilled idiots trying to kill me with their inattention .