Jayson said:
propita said:
Do you really enjoy feeling the pain or is it that you've felt it for so long that it's your "normal" state--so not feeling pain throws you off? Think on that to ease up on yourself.
I had problems for years--zero retention of self-confidence regardless of any achievement. I was finally told to see a shrink. Because I was totally honest in answering his questions, he was able to provide a diagnosis and the meds are helping. He said that if I multiplied my self-confidence by 1000, I'd still have less than zero. The extreme stress of the Bar exam caused problems, but with that done (hopefully--results are in November), I can tell that things are improving.
I've read enough of your posts to know that you can keep going and you have the support of a lot of people here.
Hang in there! We're all behind you.
I think pain and sadness is my normal state. I begin to feel wierd and uncomfortable if I am happy to long. Plus I am always expecting something bad to happen, soon as I am happy.
Jason
I thought so. It HAS been shown that thoughts contrary to the established pattern can cause mental (as in intellectual) and/or physical problems--and the person even reinforces the established pattern, no matter how self-destructive.
I totally understand the idea that the longer something goes well, the more you expect a problem, and the bigger the problem will be. Trust me on this, that is a lie we tell ourselves to maintain that pattern.
It's like having yourself in your brain, and also another "voice" that seems intent on your unhappiness and even destruction. For me, it wasn't really a voice, but thoughts that I recognized as my own thoughts, but they weren't good. And they were mentally "loud" in that they interfered with thinking. It seemed and felt like a battle in my head, of knights in armor making lots of clanging and clashing sounds. Not real sound, but mental noise. I've figured out that the battle was a represention of me fighting myself.
Fortunately for me, with much effort on my part and love and support of family, the battle ended years ago. It's tried to flare up a couple of times, but once you establish a new pattern, it's much easier to deal with everything.
Naturally, the hard part is establishing a new pattern. I'm still working on it for the self-confidence thing (3yrs with professional help, 30yrs by myself before that), but the source of that one was physiological.
DO NOT give up the battle to protect and save yourself, Jayson.