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Being better at accepting depression

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  • #373559
    noname
    Participant

    I mean that when I notice myself about to cry or feel overwhelmed with emotion i let it be. I digest it in order to go on with my day or else it will pop up at inopportune times. I didn’t used to do this. I rarely used to cry. If i felt myself near the point of tears i would attempt to suppress or distract from it with my various addictions. I learned this when i was trying to stop cutting. It would be so uncomfortable all i could do is sit with it, listen to what the emotion is trying to tell me, wait (and breathe) until it had passed. are you saying that is not helpful?

    I want to make sure i digest my emotions not suppress them. When i focus on my breathing the feeling goes away for me too, although it takes a while, not as long as it used to, but it still lingers. If i had a breakdown like i did yesterday morning for 20mins 5 years ago i would be inpatient right now because it would just keep on going. im confused

    Also, you are spot on with what i need most i fear most. I don’t know which is worse for me waiting for someone to text back or going through a week like im having now. Being in relationships feels dangerous to my survival in the sense that if, a breakup occurs > im an emotional wreck > i cant do my job > i dont get paid > i dont survive.

    • This reply was modified 4 years, 4 months ago by noname.
    • This reply was modified 4 years, 4 months ago by noname.
    #373563
    Anonymous
    Guest

    Dear noname:

    It is definitely unhealthy to suppress emotions. On the other hand, it is also unhealthy to hold on to and prolong the experience of emotional pain.

    “when I notice myself about to cry or feel overwhelmed with emotion… I digest it… (I) sit with it, listen to what the emotion is trying to tell me, wait (and breathe) until it had passed. Are you saying that is not helpful?”-

    – you are the one to judge, of course, about what is helpful to you and what is not helpful. I am not clear about what you mean by the parts I italicized, can you explain those parts to me: what it is that you are thinking, feeling and/ or doing at the times when you digest an emotion and listen to it?

    “Being in relationships feels dangerous to my survival in the sense that if a breakup occurs-> I’m an emotional wreck-> I can’t do my job-> I don’t get paid-> I don’t survive”-

    – this laying out of your fear has your adult thinking in it, but the Fear was born when you were a child, before you ever had a job and before you had to pay bills. If/ when you want to, come up with a layout/ description of your early-life (and ongoing) fear of emotional attachment and of separation from/ abandonment by your object/s of attachment.

    anita

    #373566
    noname
    Participant

    Okay, so I don’t intend to prolong the pain in those acute moments. That is something I used to do however because it felt “right” to me to punish myself. I try not to do that as much, although it does still happen.

    What i mean by digesting my emotions is like the opposite of what suppression was to me. Instead of pushing it down i let it surface and be felt from the beginning to its end, trying to keep myself in a state of mindful awareness while experiencing the emotion. I would liken it to ripping off a band-aid instead of slowly pulling it off. I just want to get the pain over with so i don’t fight it (supress it) and let it run its course.

    The exception to this is during times when it is not appropriate to digest an emotion for example when i’m doing therapy with people. I have to notice it, supress it and process it outside of working hours. I cant be crying on the floor of my office while my client is too.

    My hypothesis is that i currently have a backup of emotion (and needs) demanding attention that i continually suppress, again for survival or else i may loose my income. This is why i feel being a therapist may not be right for me, because i don’t process my emotions regularly anymore. It was nice having coworkers who were supportive or being in school and having classes where we would process things. I don’t have that community with covid anymore, therefore it just sits on my heart, until the levees break.

    I really dont feel like working today. I’m contemplating canceling my day right now. I just can’t focus. I cant manage to get any work done at home, i’m currently a week and a half behind on my notes, im tired, i’m lonely, i feel like shit, and really don’t have a good reason to keep trying anymore.

    • This reply was modified 4 years, 4 months ago by noname.
    #373571
    Anonymous
    Guest

    Dear noname:

    “I’m tired, I’m lonely, I feel like sh**, and really don’t have a good reason to keep trying anymore”- some of the ways you are trying are not working for you, no wonder you lose your motivation to keep trying. Without positive results, one loses motivation. I think that you need to evaluate the ways you’ve been trying, and start trying different ways.

    “What I mean by digesting my emotions is like the opposite of what suppression was to me. Instead of pushing it down, I let it surface and be felt from beginning to its end… (like) ripping off a band-aid instead of slowly pulling it off. I just want to get the pain over with so I don’t fight it (suppress it) and let it run its course”-

    – Your intent and strategy has been to express all the suppressed pain by crying and be done with that pain, have no more suppressed pain. But this strategy failed: you cried and cried for years and the suppressed pain is still there, hardly any of it has been released and resolved:

    “I have been having at least two severe crying episodes per day usually before going to sleep and trying to get out of bed” (June 2017),  “I have been crying all night and morning” (July 2017), “I have random crying episodes that sneak up on me” (September 2017), “I’ve been crying in so much pain for the past couple hours” (October 2017)… “I have been crying alone for the past 3-4 hours.. with  no foreseeable end to the pain.. the pain is so much sometimes” (December 2019), …”I did my takes last night and fell to the floor crying… It was about 11:30 am yesterday and I had a crying episode.. I screamed, cried… I finally picked myself up off the floor about 11:50 and washed my face” (January 26 & 27, 2021).

    Your intent in crying a lot at any one crying episode was to rip off the band-aid instead of slowly pulling it off, but seems like what you accomplished is to re-experience the suppressed pain, exhaust yourself (experiencing a temporary relief at best), but release/ resolve very little of the suppressed pain, if any.

    anita

    #373575
    noname
    Participant

    “Your intent in crying a lot at any one crying episode was to rip off the band-aid instead of slowly pulling it off, but seems like what you accomplished is to re-experience the suppressed pain, exhaust yourself (experiencing a temporary relief at best), but release/ resolve very little of the suppressed pain, if any.”

    Yes! this is what is happening re-experiencing not resolution. I don’t know what else to do (Which makes me feel bad saying that seeing as im a therapist). I guess the emotion isn’t actually getting resolved. When i said i listen to what it is telling me i meant using my emotion as a guide. So sadness is telling me something i need in this case connection. But then i dont get connection because of the way i am and now i feel like im stuck in a loop…

    #373576
    Anonymous
    Guest

    Dear noname:

    Re-experiencing the pain does not equal resolution of the pain, not even a lessening of the pain. Then.. what is the purpose of re-experiencing it, what is the emotional payoff (I ask myself.. and you)?

    anita

    #373577
    noname
    Participant

    I am so glad you suggested it may be re-experiencing. I have not looked at my episodes in this way and it makes perfect sense to me. I see this as my self trying to process past trauma. Often when i’m having these episodes my life story viewed from the perspective of a powerless victim is running parallel in my mind to the emotional experience happening in my body. Trauma is stored in the body. Therefore my taxes, relationship attempts, or any significant hardship turn out to be triggers for past trauma. The trigger being the feeling of powerlessness, such as i felt as child. The implication here is that i have not actually processed my trauma and reconnected with my authentic self that was suppressed as child?

    I think it is interesting and personally extremely frustrating that I can’t figure this out on my own. It’s not like this is new information to me. I just cant see it objectively as an outsider can. Honestly i don’t even trust anyone’s objective opinion except you and my therapist. Probably because niether one of you make me feel like i’m crazy for being the way i am, whereas other people just don’t empathize very well.

    • This reply was modified 4 years, 4 months ago by noname.
    • This reply was modified 4 years, 4 months ago by noname.
    #373581
    Anonymous
    Guest

    Dear noname:

    “Often when I’m having these episodes, my life story viewed from the perspective of a powerless victim… Trauma is stored in the body… The trigger being the feeling of powerlessness, such as I felt as a child”- bingo.

    The key to your healing is not to continue to re-experience the old experiences of trauma and powerlessness, but to experience something new: power!

    Power over the intensity of your emotions, power over your choices and behaviors, and as much power as you can exercise over your life situations, beginning in small ways, proceeding over time to bigger ways.

    “The implication here is that I have not actually processed my trauma and reconnected with my authentic self that was suppressed as a child?”- I think that you connected massively with your authentic self of the past, a powerless child, a victim. You  now need to connect to a new self that is in you, awaiting your attention and eager to earn your trust. This new self is a powerful man.

    anita

    #373582
    noname
    Participant

    Thank you Anita

    #373584
    Anonymous
    Guest

    You are welcome, noname.

    #373686
    noname
    Participant

    I’ve come up with a plan to take back power over my life. I would be interested in your feedback.

    1. I need discernment with my pain-This means being able to determine if i’m just triggered and feeling hopeless or if what I am experiencing is truly a powerless situation. I’m confident that the vast majority of the angst i experience is being triggered or re experiencing past truama. This insight came about through our communication over the past week.
    2. I need to improve my self soothing-This means furthering my abilities to soothe the wounded child in me from the nurturing adult/parent within me.
    3. I need power over my monkey mind-This means better coping and impulse control. Im thinking meditation can help with this sitting in discomfort while creating a grounded mind. The times when i’ve felt like i had control over my automatic thinking and habits were easily the times in my life i’ve felt most confident.
    4. I need a girlfriend-I need to be brave and learn to tolerate the discomfort of building attachments. I need to stop pretending i can do everything alone. I need to drop the individualistic conditioning of my culture and acknowledge i am human with human needs. I have proven to myself I am a desirable partner, believing nobody is capable of loving me is no longer the issue, its now the fear of someone loving me
    5. I need to own my job– I’m getting robbed working for other people. I have been on the fence about doing therapy long term. However as i get more comfortable and confident in my skills i know i have something people need and i have been doing this long enough to see good results with people. The practice i work at now has tripled in size and this has only made things more complicated for keeping my caseload organized. i’m not getting my money’s worth. Office space is cheap where i live, im the only black male therapist in what feels like a million miles, this is a no brainier. My goal is to have this going by the beginning of 2021 when i’m fully licensed which also opens me up to even more earning potential.

    Let me know what you think. I have to get my life together, sooner than later preferably.

    #373690
    Anonymous
    Guest

    Dear noname:

    So good to read that you came up with a plan to take back your power and get your life together, I am excited!!! My feedback:

    1. “I need discernment with my pain”- It is a good idea to ask yourself when you are distressed regarding a particular situation: is there anything I need to do about this situation now or later? If the answer is Yes, Now- then do what needs to be done. If the answer is Yes, Later- then make a note of what to on a later hour or day, and move on to the next topic &/or rest. If the answer is No (there is nothing required of you to do now or later)- then aim at moving on to another topic &/or rest.

    The re-experiencing of your trauma and expressing it through crying etc., did not lessen or resolve your trauma, so keep it in mind when you find yourself about to cry. I am not saying that you should try to not cry.. I am saying: remind yourself that crying etc. will not lessen or resolve your trauma and then.. cry or not, whatever feels right to you.

    2. “I need to improve my self soothing”- Yes, improve your self soothing/ distress tolerance= emotion regulations skills, this part is absolutely necessary, do it every day and repeatedly.

    3. “I need power over my monkey mind”- This is a continuation of #2: the more you are able to self sooth/ distract in healthy ways, tolerate distress= to regulate your emotions,  the less impulsive you will be and the more control you will have over your choices and behaviors. If you do not have a favorite meditation series that worked well  for you in the past, I recommend professor Mark Williams series of mindful guided meditations, free online, listen to one 2-3 times a day. If you feel an initial resistance, don’t give up, keep a routine of listening for a few weeks before giving up on it, if you give up on it.

    4. “I need a girlfriend”- You wrote: “I need to drop the individualistic conditioning of my culture and acknowledge I am human with human needs.. I am a desirable partner… it’s now the fear of someone loving me”-

    – (a) the issue for you is not a cultural conditioning, (b) you are already aware that you are human with human needs, (c) thinking and even feeling at times that you are a desirable partner will not lessen or resolve the fear when you find yourself in a beginning relationship, (d) the issue is not fear of someone loving you, it is the fear of depending on someone to love you and then, once relaxed and dependent on that person for love, being terribly rejected and abandoned.

    What you have done was to rush into the experience of love with a woman, then get triggered by any perceived rejection, however minute, then escalate the distress and run away.

    This will be your greatest challenge because here is your greatest fear. This is where your very early life trauma resides, the trauma of having been rejected/ abandoned by the person/s you loved deeply and completely. You will need a LOT of work on #2 and #3  to make #4 possible.

    5. “I need to own my job”- Yes, do  what it takes to start your own practice once you are fully licensed.

    anita

    #376979
    Anonymous
    Guest

    Dear noname:

    I hope you are okay, and better than okay. Are you???

    anita

    #377361
    noname
    Participant

    Hey Anita, I hope you are doing well

    I haven’t been great since i last posted. Still giving in to my addictive behaviors, I’m very stressed with survival worries related to my finances. I’m going to be able to pay my taxes thankfully since they extended the deadline by a month. But it doesn’t feel great knowing ill be 29 this month and ill have nothing to show for it. I’m pretty close to my breaking point. its hard to even type this out. I was seeing a woman last month and it only lasted a couple dates because at one point when she asked if i was doing okay i unexpectedly broke down in tears. The question caught me off guard but really was just another indication of how i’m doing and how stressed and hopeless i feel. Im just not sure how to move forward anymore. All i think about is money and when im not thinking about how i can make it out of paycheck to paycheck lifestyle the weight of loneliness sets in and…i dont know im not great. thank you for checking on me.

    #377375
    Anonymous
    Guest

    Dear noname:

    Good to read back from you. After reading your recent post, I decided to do what I often do, go back to your past posts and see if there is something new for me to see. I read a bit of what you submitted every month, beginning with March 2017, just over four years ago. In the following I will be typing out just a bit, a very small part of what you shared through the months and years, using your words, but with fewer quotes than I usually add, so to make the reading more fluid. Please read the following when you feel okay to be reading this patiently.

    March 2017:  you shared that your mother was very depressed and your father had anger issues. When you were 8-year-old, he told you that your job (and your sister’s job) was to keep your mother happy.

    April 2017: you shared that you were feeling burned out with life and very lonely, and that depression was creeping in again. You noticed children’s mannerisms, their natural curiosity and genuine emotional expressions, and how you, unlike them, were completely spent and forcing yourself through life.

    June 2017: you shared that to get close to a woman was the scariest thing in your life, that it brings up in you feelings of worthlessness and makes you feel hopeless with any amount of rejection. You shared that you were very angry with yourself, and that you have a long history of being very angry with yourself.

    In July 2017: you shared that you were so desperate for love, “and the hope is what hurts the most”. As a child, you didn’t feel and receive love. You felt then and since the overwhelming need for love. You talked to your mother at the time (July 2017), told her that you “didn’t feel the love as a child, and still have trouble feeling it”. Her response: “She cried a little bit, but admitted that she knew this was true and regretted leaving me alone so much as a kid, and not  hugging or showing affection towards me and my sister.. it’s clear to her how sad I was. She admitted (that) her and my father being inaccessible and unresponsive to my emotional needs as a child”.

    August 2017: you shared that your need for love was immediate and overwhelming, too tall of an order to be filled by anyone, and that you were “so sick of just living with hopes that tomorrow might be the day” that you will be loved.

    September 2017: you shared that your depression was worsening mostly because of life circumstances beyond your control- your car engine broke, your bike was stolen, and your roommate was to move out at the end of the month, while you were not able to pay the rent on your own. You “never felt cared for” by your parents (italicizing the word felt), and that their lack of love has been the source of your depression.

    October 2017: you shared that unlike your coworkers, classmates, everyone around you, you were the one who “consistently ends up lonely”, that you didn’t know how long you can “continue living without feeling love”, that you needed a hug badly, haven’t been held  in over a year. You shared that you have a strong desire to be with people, but when you are with people, you “withdraw pretty hard or just straight up leave to go be by myself”. You reflected that you were in a healthier state of mind when “life was slow, not too many obligations”.

    February 2018: you shared that the pain you felt was always lingering, even when you had a good week and when you made progress, that the voice in your head telling you that you were unlovable was very, very loud, and it made you want to “keep away from people”.

    June 2018 (the original post of this thread): you shared that no matter what, you still get chronically depressed, and your goal was to look  for a way to “accept the underlying lonely pain that persists no matter what I do… that I’m just going to be sad on a regular basis”, or as you put it in the title of your thread, “Being better at accepting depression”.

    July 2018: you shared that you were envious of couples you see everywhere, couples that were enjoying each other’s company.

    August 2018: you shared that you felt well the weekend before, so you decided to go back on a dating app, but you were “very uncomfortable with the idea of being in need of love or (in need of) another person”, that you were angry at women who treated you disrespectfully, that you pretend that you don’t need women. Regarding your hope to be loved, you wrote: “It hurts me to have hope”.

    September 2018: you shared that you find yourself slipping back into depression for no particular reason, feeling disconnected from people again, that you were not getting what you needed from friends, that a friend you were seeing the most didn’t ask you questions about your life.

    October 2018: you shared that you cried a lot thinking about a woman you met in the Fall of the year before, who ended up lying and cheating on you. You felt upset with yourself for “still missing her and wanting to care for her”. You also shared that a month or two before, you felt really good about yourself for 2-3 weeks, “feeling, believing, and acting as if I was a good person”. You then you “tried to start be more  outgoing and dating again”, and (as a result), that really good feeling about yourself faded.

    November 2018: you shared that you went through cycles of feeling extroverted and confident, wanting to  invite everyone you meet to your house to hangout, but like clockwork, you got depressed, cut yourself off from people and wouldn’t leave your house.

    December 2018: you shared that you were nearing your breaking point again, that two weeks before, you stayed in the house and talked to no one for an entire week, that you go through chronic depressive episodes, recover for about a week, and then restart your downward spiral. You were feeling more and more hopeless every day. The only thing that made you feel worthy was “love or admiration from other people”.

    January 2019: you shared that you were grateful to be back to your apartment after spending two weeks around your family, that you saw yourself as needy, that the feeling of being needy was closely tied to your feelings of being worthless and unlovable in platonic and in romantic relationships. You were feeling “the very specific urge to cut myself which hasn’t happened in almost a year”.

    February 2019: you shared that in the past couple of months, you’ve been “feeling more balanced, grateful, worthy, confident, and self loving”, and that your depression was much more manageable.

    May 2019: you shared that you graduated and hopefully, would be starting a new job by the end of the month, that you were on extremely thin ice financially, that asking for help or for love “always felt like a losing battle”, that you were the only single person out of all your friends, and that you felt that there must be something unlovable about you.

    June 2019: you shared that you were providing therapy for  people while feeling worthless yourself, that you didn’t know where or how to find your value and how to let go  of your pain, that getting close to people felt scary, that you felt separation anxiety from people even if you just met them, that the separation anxiety you felt as an adult, you “used to have as a child most of my waking hours”, and that (as an adult) you seek connection, but when you get close to someone, you try to run away.

    November 2019: you shared that the August before, you moved out of your sister’s house, and were living with a roommate, that you realized that you were far more emotionally mature than you thought you were, that you have done the work most people don’t do, and that you were scared that you will not find secure attachment with anyone because so many people are so wounded and lost in the world, including yourself. You shared that you were so desperate to feel loved that you would “accept almost anything someone promised me, no matter how foolish”, and that you hated yourself for that.

    December 2019: you shared that you had a very difficult week, that you missed two days of work, that you felt terribly unmotivated, that you were “overwhelmed by hopelessness and loneliness”. You shared this: “when I was cutting, I would cut when I felt dead.. cutting reminded me I was alive”. You shared that you desperately wanted “to be held, and seen or heard, but I don’t know how to get these things”.

    January 2020: you shared that you were angry at your parents for leaving you alone often, that one time, you were left for 2-3 hours at the bus stop when you were in grade school, waiting for your father to pick you up, that your mother was there physically, but not emotionally. You wrote: “My parents have lip service to love though I did not experience what it actually felt like”.

    February 2020:  you wrote: “I am generally uncomfortable being emotionally & physically intimate with people”. You shared that you went to your sister the day before. While you were talking to your sister, your mother continually interrupted you. You ignored her and continued to talk to your sister. You then talked to your brother in law. Your mother interrupted you again. You sighed and rolled your eyes. Your mother then screamed: “You’re always so F*** ing disrespectful!” and went upstairs to her room for the rest of the day. The morning after, she texted you: “I’m not sure why you continue to have an issue with me… I don’t deserve that from my child… I’m worthy of your respect”.

    March 2020: you shared: “my mother preaches forgiveness yet won’t ever forgive me… I don’t feel guilty for not talking to my mom, because it would somehow turn into a conversation about what I’m doing wrong in the relationship, there is never an end to those types of conversations unless me or my sister admit we were wrong… the conversation is always criticism of what I’m doing to hurt her and never about the abundance of things I’ve done right… she is always complaining about us and how  we treat her. I’m sick of it and don’t feel like defending myself anymore against her opinions of me”.

    December 2020: you shared that you didn’t talk to your mother since March, for about five months, (but your sister at the time was pleading with you to unblock your mother on your phone).

    January 2021: you shared that you felt more hopeless than you felt in a few years, that you saw nothing but isolation, that you were able to survive, but surviving seemed hopeless.

    Today, April 8, 2021: you shared that you are very stressed with financial survival worries, living paycheck to paycheck, that you will be 29 this month and “have nothing to show for it”, that you had a couple of dates with a woman last month. She asked you if you were doing okay. The question caught you off guard, and you broke down in tears.

    My thoughts today: I think that the following did not occur to me until today: I re-read today (and remember having read it repeatedly before), that in July 2017, you had a particular conversation with your mother, where you told her that you did not feel loved as a child, and she validated your experience, telling you that indeed she left you alone a lot, didn’t hug you or show you affection, etc., and that she regretted it, crying. You later shared that she attended therapy, so I was somewhat under the impression that she was no longer the way she was before, when you were a child.

    But 2.5 years later, in February 2020, there was no evidence at all of her Feb 2017 impressive understanding, validation and regret, or of any therapy she attended: (1) when  you were a child she talked a lot about herself, fast forward, in Feb 2020, she repeatedly interrupted you, (2) the mother who was regretful for neglecting her boy throughout his childhood and beyond, screamed at same boy for being disrespectful to her in Feb 2020, (3) the mother who left her boy alone, disappearing into her room, behind closed doors for hours, did the same thing Feb 2020,  disappearing into her room for the rest of the day, (4) the morning after, she texted you: “I’m not sure why you continue to have an issue with me.. I don’t deserve that from my child”- as if she did not admit of the very serious emotional neglect issue she admitted to 2.5 years earlier.

    And then, in March 2020, you shared that she repeatedly criticized what you were doing “to hurt her”, complaining about how you were allegedly mistreating her, pointing to what you were allegedly doing wrong, wouldn’t stop talking until you admitted that you were wrong.. I don’t remember noticing this before, that she massively guilt-tripped you when you were a child, and still, as an adult.

    Now I understand, after all this time, how destructive she has been in your life, not only when you were a child, but still, at least true to a year ago. You wrote in March 2020: “my mother preaches forgiveness yet won’t ever forgive me”- no wonder you have hated yourself all these years: she has wronged you, yet she insists that you wronged her and.. somehow you.. think (and/ or she thinks)  that she needs to forgive you.

    I am guessing that your mother’s impressive performance in July 2017, was just that.. a performance, or as you called it perhaps, lip service (“My parents have lip service to love though I did not experience what it actually felt like”, January 2020).

    I am sorry, noname, I don’t think  I realized this before. If you read this far, take your time and reply to me when you feel like it, when it is okay for you to reply. And when you do, we’ll take it from here.

    anita

     

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