Here's a link to a thread about how therapy can help. http://forums.psychcentral.com/showt...feeling&page=2

I'm going to rewrite what I posted there about a time therapy helped me. I'll try to write it with less therapy jargon.

A time when therapy helped me ... from a long time ago...

T was asking me something about childhood and i was uncomfortable to answer, which surprised me. I had thought I understood my childhood pretty well and I wouldn't have any difficulty explaining it. Since I was uncomfortable, I realized there was something I must have forgotten about (because people forget things when the things are emotionally upsetting to remember).

T said, "it's hard to say it when it hurts." That seemed SO gentle and empathetic- especially since I was expecting he'd give me a hard time for not answering. (Note for Stopdog- I think this was like a positive moment, an affirmation, or a connection.)

Since T was nice to me in that situation, it led me to feel I could also feel nice toward myself about the things I was having trouble talking about. I wasn't upset that I forgot. I was able to more calmly think about it and remember. It let me think about memories I had forgotten about because the memories were upsetting. The memories were how I felt unaccepted by my mother when I was a kid. I realized that feeling from the past felt the same as some current bad feelings. As an adult, I know feeling unaccepted is not necessary, since people don't treat me that way any more. So I realized I still feel that way just because I was used to feeling that way growing up. But I don't need to feel that way anymore.

It didn't get totally fixed, but it helped.