Thank you everyone who replied!
I woke up this AM still angry at the therapist I saw yesterday and couldn'tt stop thinking about what I wanted to say to her. Even though my body wanted to stay in bed to get more rest, I accepted that my head was "awake" for the day, and I got myself up and making breakfast will distract me somewhat from having all my focus on how angry I am at her.
This is really hard. I am getting thoughts and emotions, almost constantly lately, that I don't know what to do with. My sensations of "get away from this person" that I feel as soon as someone seems unhelpful, scary, con artist, have protected me in the past. Its not going to be easy to transform that entire process of me scanning a person to ensure they are not out to take advantage of me, and then flee. That has been my process for years.
My emotions seem "stuck" at age 4 or so.
Even if eveyrone in my life understood enough to cut me some slack for the next while my path to recovery or healing would be hard as hell. But the people in my life are not cutting me slack for the most part. They see an adult in shape and size in front of them and expect me to be able to not only behave like an adult but to take care of their needs as well. Its exhausting.
Red, thank you for your post. I have an appointment with a grief counselor and i was going to cancel it because I am worn out but I am going to keep it.
Davit, I will try the mirror exercise.
Hugs4you, and Kevzbob,your words were right on too. Most people in my life don't want me to havve emotions. They do not want to be shock absorbers. Worse, they are so unhelpful that when I am upset they talk about how inconvenient this is for themm. Or they walk away. There is a lot of confusion because others do not understand and I am unable to explain what is going on inside. They say "if this is how you are going to behave I am leaving". they don't understand that this behaviour is a cry for help. They don't see that their response is the worst thing they could do while I am crying for help. They think that if you walk away from a crying child, it will teach the child to grow up. That is wrong.
They do not see that this is something I am struggling with inside and that if I don't get that energy out and if I keep it inside that would be worse. In a way I guess I have been begging for someone to help me absorb the shock of the painful emotion but when you throw something out and it doens't get absorbed it bounces back. Or worse I end up dealing with my inner turmoil and trying to relieve others of theirs that they believe I have caused them. My inner turmoil is not mine. I don't even have to convince myself of that anymore. I just feel it. It is not me. It is camping out inside me and I want it gone. I truly believe that anyone who becomes part of my personal healing circle has to also believe that "it" (the anger) is not me. It needs to be shown the door, not me.
so I am in a real cycle right now. WHen I am not upset, I am busy trying to think my way out of this, and trying to figure out who I can trust, who I should keep in my life and so on. Then when I am upset I suffer through the pain. Then when that is over, I go back to trying to figure out what to do about it. I go back and forth endlessly, telling myself I can handle it by myself, and then getting upset because I don't want to do it alone and am not sure I can. Over and over.