today my therapist told me that sometimes negative feelings like guilt, anxiety, self loathing, etc are like the hiccups. theyâre uncomfortable, we donât like them, thereâs no way to turn them off; they can even be incapacitating for a while. we donât always know where they came from or when theyâll go away, so sometimes instead of focusing on why we feel a certain way we need to get better at recognizing its temporary nature, keeping perspective, and enduring discomfort. i feel like a lot of self-improvement rhetoric is about pinpointing specific causes for negative thoughts/behaviors so you can eradicate them, but people with chronic mental illness really need to work on allowing themselves to experience these feelings without going into a downward spiral.
thank you for this
I want to think on this
I think this may help
Lol I conveniently have hiccups now
my therapist often reminds me that âwhy do i feel like this?â can sometimes be a dangerous question to ask yourself alone and leave you digging through all the times youâve felt guilty/rejected/ashamed before. itâs easy to spiral that way if youâre not careful. with practice, iâve started asking myself âwhat do i need to get through this?â the answers to that one are a bit more useful in the moment, and the shift has also helped me be kinder to myself when these feelings come up.
