I have been there! One step at a time is all I can say. I started with a list of feelings I found in a book and read pages and pages of dictionary's to try to find what I was "supposed" to feel, all I knew was bad. Every time a feeling came up, it was just bad. I was scared too - that I would unleash a monster, that it would never stop, that it would make things worse. Identifying and feeling the feelings in therapy DOES make things worse temporarily, but eventually it starts to calm down. I don't know how it will be forever, right now I usually try to make one day, one memory, one feeling at a time. I am finding the things that I really have felt down to the core and done all the re-experiencing and painful processing are starting to lose their thunder. It's not easy and sometimes I am ready to throw in the towel, but every baby step I take gives me a tiny bit of hope that some day I will be free.
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Children's talent to endure stems from their ignorance of alternatives.
~ Maya Angelou
Thank you SadNEmpty for my avatar and signature.
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