Forming strong negative connections with things

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Last year I had a severe meltdown during an activity for work. My mind formed a strong negative connection with the building where it took place, the activity that was being conducted and with the staff member who forced me to do something so uncomfortable for me it was the final straw before the meltdown.
I've been told I'm getting transferred out next year and it happens to be to the very building where all this took place. How can I get over the strong negative associations I feel whenever I think about having to go to this place?

Maybe you could go to the building on your day off, and walk around. See what kind of vibes you get. Stare the demon down.

The inside of this place is horrible at the best of times. I've never liked going there even before the incident, which btw I received counselling for. It's dark and dingy and like a rabbit warren. The rooms are odd shapes and there's freakin' murals painted on the walls with freakin' people staring out at you.

I have this too where with certain people, games, places and the like I keep a mental image of the place when something bad happened.

It makes it hard to enjoy certain games in that respect when I like them, but when something terrible happened before, during or after I was playing them (with Assassin's Creed 3 I developed serotonin syndrome the night before, so I'll always associate that game with that, which sucks, because I love the game)

Hmmm. You could try saying, "My enemy is a notion, not a nation."



I used to be an adventurer like you but I took an arrow to the knee.

I've also had some of these negative associations with things that I had bad experiences around. This kind of thing happened to me a lot when I was a child, and some when I was a teen. It does not happen as much now but is still possible. I think my brain does not do the association thing as often. That is great for my stress level, because I don't have to relive the panic attacks and adrenalin rushes and feelings of humiliation or anger every time I encounter a trigger.

I still have some trigger problems with a few of my old terrible experiences, but most of the worst ones are not as bad at they used to be, and some of them have completely gone away. Some old painful ones don't cause anxiety any more, but can distract me and slow my concentration.