I know what you mean except I reach this less-intense space through meditating rather than journaling.

I guess the only thing I can say is that this watered-down space is actually helpful, in that, if I really pay attention to it, I have access to a much wider range / subtler set of feelings and emotions.

So, bringing those up in therapy -- even when it has seemed like doing so has lacked that energy / intensity of those major emotions -- has been helpful because T has then offered some solid insights about them.

In my case, it also felt like a much more packed therapy session because I don't feel like my T can do much when I'm just overwhelmed or in the grip of some intense emotion because I just don't have enough awareness of what's going on inside of me to tell her about it.

So, being in this less intense space and still examining those watered-down emotions has greatly helped because it brings up stuff that otherwise would never have come to light had I always been feeling intense and overwhelmed. It also has me feeling more like an adult and 'in control' (which feels good to me).

It does at times feel like a risk though because a large part of my brain equates overwhelming intensity with excitement and non-intensity with boredom -- so, I keep feeling like I'm going to bore the crap out of myself if I talk about stuff that's not intense and then I'll run out of things to talk about and then therapy would've been pointless etc. But, that's mostly just my peculiar craziness talking.

If I really push myself to pay attention to whatever constitutes that watered-down stuff, a whole lot of things start bubbling up which in turn make for a really productive therapy session. I won't say it's been easy though because it's super hard to train my mind to turn away from the idea that intensity = awesome and non-intensity = bleh.