So, had a question posed to me this week by someone (perhaps my therapist) about what the difference is between having a psychological crash and just being sad. Good question. Though provoking question. Made me really think. I posed the question to some people (perhaps some people in one of my therapy groups) to see what they had to say, and we came up with some really good answers, so I thought I would share....
The leader...we will call him Master WiseMind...he preferred to call being sad "Feeling Emotion". Me, not so good at feeling emotion. Don't like it. Try not to do it. Wouldn't be prudent. And what we deducted from the conversation is that in an attempt to NOT feel the emotion, I obsess over the THOUGHT of the emotion, which in turn, makes me feel worse. Does that make sense? So, for example, when I get sad about a situation, instead of just letting myself feel sad, I obsess over the fact that I don't want to feel sad, I listen to music on my Nano to try and match my mood and it ends up taking me to a dark place. Or, another story that might be more understandable, we put one of our dogs to sleep almost three weeks ago, and instead of allowing myself to feel all the emotions that go along with that, I stuffed it and just kept his leash in my purse so that I, essentially, have kept a part of him with me. So, it feeds off of itself and creates, basically, tunnel vision where it spirals out of control and I do end up "crashing".
Good thing in talking it out with Master WiseMind....we also talked about what to do to avoid the "crash"... things that seem pretty logical but in the moment might seem pretty illogical... such as reminding yourself that what is going on is temporary and won't last forever, focusing on the good times and the memories, getting outside of yourself by talking to someone else, refusing to wallow in yourself and by not be willful, and if all else fails....watch Marsha Linehan...
(this has been edited from it's original version....proving once again it is not always wise to write a blog at 5AM after 3 hours and 58 minutes of sleep).
I feel like humans have way more emotions and hormones running through our bodies that we can't categorize in just two parts. I have my time of the month that makes me crazy. I go through rough times with school and work which make me frustrated. I have been through situational depression which is super fun (sarcasm). Stress, fatigue, change, sorrow......so many things that can cause a meltdown. You can't avoid a "crash" in my opinion but can get through it better/easier if you know time will get you through it.
ReplyDeleteI so agree....I think I am working on the how to get through it part instead of the lingering on it part...and learning to watch the patterns...like I don't crash during my time of the month, but right after, like my hormones bottom out and just can't take anymore.....
DeleteIt has been over a year since I had a 'crash', my uber awesome therapist finally dismissed me from coming to see him. I think that learning to recognize the signs it is coming (for me its the tight tummy, circular thinking, and no sleep) and heading it off at the pass.
ReplyDeleteOnce my switch gets flipped I have an incredibly hard time shutting it down without letting it run it's course. That means days/weeks/months of uncontrollable anxiety attacks, crying, bingeing and one or two hours of sleep a night so I can have more time to enjoy my misery.
So now if I see/feel it coming I take a break from whatever I am doing and search my insides to see where the trigger lies. I may not even be able to find a solution to the reason but just knowing it helps me to feel less irrational and keep my shit together.