We are all “conspiracy theorists”.
Hold on, hold on. Do not stop reading. I know that title is a little dramatic but hang on let me explain.
Have you ever called someone or sent a message to someone and when the person didn’t respond within what you believed was a reasonable time you start to say things like the person is ignoring you?
The classic one is when maybe you call your boyfriend/girlfriend or husband/wife and they don’t pick then you start thinking they are cheating on you.
Or for parents, if you haven’t heard from your child you think the worst has happened.
We all are guilty really. The other day, I didn’t hear from a friend for a couple of days and I was upset and made up some “interesting” stories as to why.
When I finally heard from her, her phone screen was bad and she had to use a “dumb” phone while her phone was being fixed so she hadn’t seen all the WhatsApp messages I had sent.
I felt a bit silly.
This is always the case, we think up all things except the actual reason why we hadn’t heard from the person.
I know this isn’t the classic definition of a conspiracy theory. These stories we “cook up” to make sense of a situation is what I call conspiracy theories. Much like the typical conspiracy theories, they are never fact-based.
Conspiracy theories can range from the benign ones we tell ourselves to the global large-scale and often damaging ones.
Research has proven the reasons why some people believed these theories. While they all don’t apply here, some of them do, such as the need for human beings to always rationalize situations. We don’t do very well with uncertainty so we fill the void. We have an overwhelming need for control.
This COVID period has been fodder for conspiracy theories, from 5G to Bill Gates world agenda. We have absolutely no way to prove these.
The most plausible explanation is that the world needs to make sense of the craziness going on so we make up stories that we can believe. We need something to believe. We need to always control the narrative otherwise… otherwise, I don’t know.
When I started thinking about the type of stories we make up in these situations(personal), I realized that they are almost always the things we are scared about or believe about the person or situation on the receiving side.
If the first thoughts that come to your mind when you don’t hear from your boyfriend or husband is that he is cheating, that is probably because that is what you are afraid of or what you believe about that person.
This applies to all situations where this happens; making up stories.
You need to ask yourself why? What is behind that fear or belief? Is it telling you something about yourself, the person or the situation?
I’m a parent and I make up stories with regards to the safety of my children as any parent would relate to.
But why? Why am I afraid? Is their safety something within my control always? This is such an uncomfortable feeling but I’m learning to interrogate these emotions. I’m learning to deal with facts.
I know people might argue for the place of intuition. I know that’s valid but how do we apply it in a way that doesn’t make us lose our minds from anxiety?
I would like to hear if you have any counter-arguments.
