Say Something Random: psychological Conditions Version

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My therapist said that I'm like a cat that like to play with a mouse

He's so funny sometimes

My therapist wants me to try to connect with fear...to try to feel it. How does one go about doing that? Should I ask people to randomly jump out and startle me? Is startled even the same as afraid? Should I go climb up in some abandoned building, try to get on the roof and hope I don't fall to my death? I'm not sure how to connect with an emotion I'm not sure I have experienced in ages. I know I felt it before, but I can't recall how it felt. Sometimes the things this guy wants me to do leave me scratching my head.

Think of fear as anxiety and avoidance. ^
I think it's misrepresented by most psychologists.

What's weird is though is that I really really enjoy getting an emotional reaction out of other people

I do do it on purpose but it's perfectly innocent on my part but it's just that I want to see how people are emotional

I do this a lot and I don't in therapy with him. That's why he said I'm like a cat playing with a mouse

Sorry about my post before. I think I'm frustrated with my therapist as it seems to me that he might be either expecting more from me than is realistic or that he thinks maybe I'm more emotionally intelligent than I am. Regardless, I was being snarky as hell, but not entirely wrong either.

He does want me to connect with fear in ways that involve avoidance. He thinks I avoid a lot due to fear. I don't think he's wrong, but I also think he's not paying mind to valid reasons for me to avoid things...reasons like sensory crap and the reality that if I do this or that it could cause me to have a shutdown episode. Then for things that would not cause me actual issues, things like, oh, having a difficult talk with someone...that is totally out of my comfort zone, but I am willing to do it when I recognize that the need exists. I just need the ability to see a problem exists in the first place. In that, how can I practice if I have no issues to attend to?

But he also does want me to connect with fear in general. All emotions, really. One of his goals is to get me able to feel more, especially positive emotions...happy, for example. He believes that I will likely never be able to feel a full range of emotions on some deeper level, but even if I can connect with them more, that could be great and I am inclined to agree with that.

Some days I am pleased with this stuff and look forward to doing things and trying to connect and so on. Other days it gets to seeming like a daunting/annoying task that produces zero results. Yesterday was a daunting/annoying day for me with this stuff. Today I'm mostly confused by it. Tomorrow who knows where I'll be with it. On the plus side, it doesn't much matter what I think on it. I plan to keep on with it and time will tell what comes of it all. I don't need to know now and I know therapy isn't some smooth sailing trip. Is okay.

I think desire is a far stronger feeling than anxiety

I'm learning to connect with my feelings too

I think that's why I'm dissecting every little thing I'm thinking all of a sudden because I'm thinking there must be some kind of feeling behind what I'm thinking

Am also doing a lot more outside stuff as well like my jump rope and roller skating and I'm relearning how to interact with people again after a very long time of shutting myself off. So that's been interesting this past week and a lot of fun as well

I've been doing that to. I randomly stop throughout the day to think about what I'm doing/thinking/whatever and try to figure out what it is, where it comes from and so on. I want to know. Lol. I've also been doing 'fun' things and then getting overly dramatic about it on purpose to see if it helps me connect more to/consistently recognize happy. Not sure if it will work, but no harm in trying that's for sure.

Outside can be awesome. I've been trying to do more of that as well, and even interacting more with people the dog and I encounter on our adventures out there. I'm prone to shutting myself off as well and don't much interact with the masses to. I'd never leave the house if I didn't have to. Glad you're enjoying it your adventures out there in the world. They can be fun.

I had a weird thing happen a few weeks back where I was walking the dog and I had this moment where I stopped and realized I was an actual part of that moment. Sounds weird, maybe, but for feeling disconnected all the time, that aha moment was huge to me...that I am actually a part of my environment and surroundings not some outsider observing. It was cool.

Yeah I like it it sounds trippy AF

I'm all for the reconnecting stage

Sometimes (and I needs to come to terms with this) real life people get right in the way of my inner world

Cheers pal

I think I must have been high when I made that post

I'm in no doubt that such a thing happened though

I wonder is there more mental illness these days than there used to be