What do you do after sessions?

Thank you for your replies, understanding and suggestions!

My appointment times are all in the evening and I’m very thankful that they are. I can’t imagine having to snap back to reality so quickly. You guys are very strong and grounded to be able to do that.

It usually feels like I’m not all “me” on my way to his office, and depending on what we talk about, I’m at varying levels of “me-ness” when I leave his office. The drive home is usually in auto mode.

There is an area that he has offered for me to sit and collect myself, but for some reason it never really feels like an option to me. I guess auto mode turns on when my time is up and I just do the normal thing.

I do have things going through my mind on the drive home, but they are distant and I’m not really working through them. It’s just there until I can get home and write in my journal.

There isn’t really anywhere to stop on the way home that I would feel safe and calm. It’s dark and cold here now when I’m headed home.

A coffee shop sounds very inviting, but it doesn’t feel like I could really relax there and journal. There are some nights here at home that I’m journaling and don’t realize what time it is. I think that is loosing time. Maybe? That makes me feel cautious about journaling openly and unedited anywhere but at home.

If it wasn’t so late in the evening the gym does sound like a great idea.

I guess my main desire is to get home and have the space to put in my journal, what’s going on inside of me.

Maybe if I can just decide that when I get home, it will be after I take care of what everybody needs, then I can have the time to listen.

I just get kind of weird about my space when I’m tryin to get everybody settled. It feels like I’m being crowded.

Thanks again for the replies. I appreciate you!

My brain is always packed full of stuff after a session. I like to write in my journal immediately after session. This serves both as a way for me to process and decompress after talking, but also it serves as a record of what we did and talked about so I can remember it for next time.
If you aren't able to do this as soon as you get home, could you maybe keep a notebook in your car and journal in the parking lot before you drive home? Or maybe you could make notes in your phone before you get home.
If you don't like to write, as others have suggested you could take an aimless drive. You can even talk things out, out loud, to yourself it's not weird. Everyone does it! (I think)

When I first started therapy, I would drink after every session. If I had a morning session and had to go to work after, I'd only have one beer. If I had an afternoon session and didn't have to go back to work, I'd head straight from my therapist's office to the bar.

Then, a little over two months into therapy, I decided to take a break from drinking. I'm done with the break now, but I never went back to drinking after sessions.

I try to write (or at least dictate if I'm driving to work) session notes, but I've been slacking on that too.

I had sessions first thing in the morning. When I was in a drinking relapse, I would get drunk after each session, right in the morning, and email the T. It wasn't specific to therapy though, I did that 2-3x a week during that time. That was pretty horrible. When I resolved the relapse, I would either go to work or work from home during the day, but still emailed the T most of the time post-session. I never did anything specific to calm down and the emailing wasn't really helpful, more another bad habit.

I would meet up with friends for a late lunch/drink whenever possible. I had a lot of frustration/rage over the woman's lack of explanation about what she was doing at me.

I like to be off from work on therapy day. I also usually drive around a lot, mostly not very aware of my surroundings because I'm so much in my head. I also don't really like to talk to anyone afterwards. If my H tries to talk to me I sometimes don't hear half of the things he says. If there are too many thoughts in my head I try to write them down otherwise I get quite anxious. I'm glad to see others are similar.

i go to bed. we usually talk until very late.

I had an awful session today and spent a good chunk of it in tortured silence because of inner ones who were silencing me/us with a constant barrage of insults and threats. It felt so awful and isolated and disconnected from self and from t. it really was a mess.
It didn't want to listen to the audio because I thought it would make me feel even more disconnected and isolated but I remembered how often I get things from the audio that I don't hear or remember in session so I listened anyway.
I am so glad I did. Even though there was so much internal distress throughout the session I could hear that T was present and aware and connected to what was going on for me even though I had no awareness of that at the time. She was right there saying all the right things and understood the inner turmoil and the reason for it, even more so than me at the time.
I feel much calmer and less triggered now. I love having audio of my sessions!

I often have to go straight back to work after therapy appointments, but whenever I have the opportunity I crawl into bed and curl up under the covers.

For some reason when I have to go back to work I just snap the lid back on my vulnerability... but when I don’t have any other responsibilities, I let all the feelings (including the vulnerability) wash over me. I don’t know if this is Processing or Walliwing or what.

As often as possible, no matter the weather, i go hiking after my sessions. If the kids have no school, i pick them up from the babysitter and hike with them. I really need the outdoors and movement to get all of the emotions out of my body. I also drink lots of water. Every once in awhile, i have enough money to go to a acupuncture after therapy and that also belos to clear my body.

It all depends on how the session was. Sometimes I cry in my car and start a thread on here before I leave the parking lot. Often I go grocery shopping because it's on the way home. If I have somewhere to go at night, I'm better off. Sometimes I have a lot of reactions to my session and want to email T right away. Other times I don't. I don't analyze my relationship with T as much as I used to. She's a real person and we have a real relationship. I don't have to ruminate about everything so much afterwards.