The purpose of questions from t

Yes that was me too - I thought I'd go along for 6 targeted sessions and I would be cured - I have always lived in my head (still my prefered place to be, feels safer there), but after 18 months realise there lie the problem - I need to feel this stuff in order to live my life.

And yes at the difficult points, I do have to have faith - I have never been religious, so this isn't easy for me either. I do so hope you find a T that you can have faith in. Soup

I don't agree with the irrational feelings part but imo you might not just have clicked with the right therapist or right type of school of therapy.

A lot of my therapy is spent me reading books that he suggests on my own and discussing what I get out of various theories in them and how I could use them towards my own life. Maybe something like that would be more appealing?

Feelings are discussed and I learned to access them and express them and be generally happier but there is a solid process behind everything.

Forgive me if I'm way off base.

I have no formal religion either and there were times when I wished I did because "faith" is a good concept, and the major religious traditions all have some way to describe belief beyond sensory "proof." So "faith" came in handy and as a result of therapy, I consider myself much more spiritual in my nature (though still not part of a traditional "church.") It helped with the strong, negative "transference" that developed between me and ...well, you know that story...

I keep getting inspired to write about rather extreme, abstract philosophical ideas when I read your posts.

I think enjoying life (not feeling awful) takes some faith too- at least faith that one's own feelings of enjoyment are real and valuable.

I'm an atheist who debates with other atheists about the need to have "faith" in some things. Sometimes I don't like the word faith because it has a religious connotation, so I say "belief" instead. I think philosophers usually agree that when you question things enough, you can't empirically prove everything, like you can't prove why empirical proof is valid. People just experience that it's valid. So you have to have faith/belief in something (your experience).

Anyway, I'm not sure these abstract ideas are very important or relevant. I'm glad you think you might be able to figure out how to adjust your structure or methods so you can find some relief.