View Single Post
 
Old Oct 23, 2017, 10:42 PM
annielovesbacon's Avatar
annielovesbacon annielovesbacon is offline
Grand Poohbah
 
Member Since: Apr 2016
Location: USA
Posts: 1,527
Quote:
Originally Posted by alpacalicious View Post
I think I'm not experiencing a lot of feelings related to certain things in my childhood. If I loock back I don't remember what I felt when I was a child. I guess I supressed a lot. I'm a feeler in general tho, I feel things intensely but I guess I repressed some emotions. Sometimes it's helpful to try to convey these feelings with images. At least in my experience, when I don't know how to describe my feelings I use images, or metaphors.
I feel the same way. Even when I do feel feelings, they're like images, not anything I can verbalize. I'm not sure how to convey them to my therapist, and I'm a terrible artist.

Quote:
Originally Posted by satsuma View Post
Hi Annie, thanks
It's hard to say just which part of therapy helped exactly ... I think the experience of being treated as if I matter and my thoughts and feelings matter made me see myself differently and not feel so much need to suppress everything.
I grew up in an abusive household and I formed the impression, without really realising it, that I was a bad person. Also I was often told off and shamed for being upset, and sometimes told that this was proof that I was bad, so I had a lot of shame around my emotions and many years of trying to suppress them. We have worked a LOT on that - recognising that my mum is very unwell and that it's not in any way my fault. My T says that a huge sign of progress for me is that I am able to express upset and anger towards my mum.
We do schema therapy which is kind of like CBT but more in depth, and one of the things we have worked on both cognitively and with imagery work is overcoming the belief that I am a bad person. I truly don't believe it any more, and as I see myself as a "normal" person like everyone else, I think that it's ok for me to have emotions, sometimes be upset etc., just like everyone else.
It's amazingly liberating and I really hope that you will also be able to get to this place.
Thank you so much for sharing. In my home when I was a kid, I wasn't necessarily punished or anything for sharing emotion, but my parents are not expressive at all and would tease me if I ever cried, so I suppose that's where it comes from.
__________________
stay afraid, but do it anyway.