hi all. on another thread here someone wrote about dissociated emotions and i've been wondering if this is the same thing as repressing one's emotions. i've been trying to figure out how i dissociate and i know i'm really good at stuffing my emotions so it would make sense to me if they are the same or similar. i recently had some strong emotion come up around something that happened a few years ago and i had no idea that i felt how i did about that situation. i have had this happen before and it's a rather strange thing to experience.

[Fox]

From what I've personally read online so it's probably not accurate my understanding is the two seem to often be comparable. However repressed emotions are emotions that you've felt but you pushed away so you don't deal with them. That's the kind of emotion build up that seems to be behind a lot of hurtful things. Dissociated emotions is more of a protection for the psyche and the person does not always behave in an expected way to a given circumstance. Like a puppy being hurt may only stimulate a numbness but nothing negative or positive. They come across cold but really they can't associate it to an emotional response. Like I said this is my understanding and everyone and their pets can correct me because I have a feeling that I'm wrong since I'm not fully understanding either.

Was going to say something else but I forget now {reads what they typed again} Oh yeah! Both repressed and dissociated emotions can be treated. The repressed one can learn to let his emotions show in a structured way since many of them hold it in because of the fear of hurting someone. The dissociative one can learn how to "feel" their emotions and get past the numbness as well.

I hope I didn't just confuse you more and do understand there's a good chance I'm misunderstanding this myself.

[iamtwilight]

good explanation, Fox! i've been wondering about that too.

twilight

[amandalouise]

Originally Posted by reflection

hi all. on another thread here someone wrote about dissociated emotions and i've been wondering if this is the same thing as repressing one's emotions. i've been trying to figure out how i dissociate and i know i'm really good at stuffing my emotions so it would make sense to me if they are the same or similar. i recently had some strong emotion come up around something that happened a few years ago and i had no idea that i felt how i did about that situation. i have had this happen before and it's a rather strange thing to experience.

My understanding of the two is

Repressed emotions – is shutting off feeling the emotions in a totally automatic way. someone dies you happen to be the one that has to be strong for everyone so you automatically don’t go through the grieving process. Instead of grieving you work on things that need to get done like the funeral, figure out the estate, organize the wake/celebration of life, be everyone else shoulder to cry on.. you don’t think about pushing the tears, sadness, away, you just automatically go into survival mode of getting things done because someone has to do it. Later could be a few hours could be years but later a similar experience triggers you into feeling those emotions that you couldn’t feel when someone died. A rape victim represses their emotions and some parts of their attack. The attack is just too painful for them to remember right then so every time they start remembering they automatically push that memory away by getting busy doing other things cleaning the house, go shopping go to work. Then later something will trigger them to remember and have flashbacks. Repressed emotions don’t take on a name and life of their own.

Dissociated emotion is a conscious effort not to allow yourself to feel an emotion out fear for your life.. That emotion gets shut off, blocked from you and takes on a life of its own as an alternate personality. A person dies you start to feel sad and start to cry, you take a deep breath and push the sadness away, tell your self not now, if I feel this I wont ever stop crying, bad things will happen I have to not feel this its not me that is feeling this, its not my sadness not my pain. Then those emotions take on a life of their own as the alter that feels sadness, the alter that knows death. The alter that dresses in black to represent sadness and death. The alter that does the grieving for you.