First of all you will notice the use of the word "my"--a PERSONAL pronoun used to describe a rule that is "MY" rule as in "ME"---not you, or them, or they, or he, or she.

Secondly, no one said anything about avoidance or repression----discretion maybe but not avoidance or repression--BIG difference there!

Good lord if I decided to shoot my mouth off and call everyone on the planet an a-hole that I personally felt was an a-hole---what good would that do? The very fact that I believe someone to be such is far from the total reality that the person can be verified as one. It is validated by me to myself as my own opinion and nothing more, but does it always serve a purpose to voice that opinion---no. Sometimes to voice my opinion serves only one purpose and that is to do nothing more than vindicate my own feelings----I don't NEED to voice that opinion to others to have it validated----as I have validated it for myself and have looked at it honestly and realized where it is coming from. Maybe the person really is an a-hole or maybe I have just percieved them to be one and they are quite the opposite.

That is not denial or repression or avoidance. That is simply looking inside of myself honestly and not allowing my own "feelings" about a person cloud my judgement of what the situation actually is. It is reality and an exercise in self-awareness and the refusal on my own part to to allow myself to be ruled by my "feelings" and to somehow feel vindicated and justified by shooting my mouth off at another's expense.

The way I "feel" about someone is not always the best way to see them clearly--- as I have learned that with my anxiety disorder I have a tendency to see things through my "feelings" and not my logical thought process. I realize that I am hyper-sensitive at times and have to make a choice to not react and voice all of my opinions, based totally on the faulty thought process that has gone on in my head that has led me to that opinion in the first place.

So this is why FOR ME I have the rule FOR MYSELF that I am always entitled to my opinion, I am not always entitled to express it.------Deanna