Being aware of your emotions vs checking feelings

@Nica Compared to trying to analyze or change your feelings and thoughts by fighting, hiding, or shirking with yourself/your mental illness—which I not mindfulness and never works.

@Nica Checking emotions isnt trying to change, youre just so used to check how you feel or how a certain thing makes you feel and you want to see how it makes you feel. Many times youre afraid and you dont want to feel that feeling and thats why youre checking if it makes you feel like that

@PRIV8 Checking is a compulsion. The key is to watch your thoughts and feelings float by like a cloud in the sky. You don’t reach for the cloud but you can see acknowledge its presence without doing anything. And then you go about the activity that you were doing before seeing the cloud.

@PRIV8 Feelings will not kill you. Thoughts will not kill you. Being uncomfortable will also not kill you. Your amygdala will say otherwise, but we are more than that part of our brain. As humans, we have a consciousness. Use your consciousness to your advantage.

@Nica Nica are you able to watch your thoughts float by and it not give you physical discomfort? It’s the discomfort and anxiety that I physically feel with my thoughts that I struggle with.

@NJmom Most of the time, yes. But uncomfortable feelings happen all the time too. Nothing needs to change and doesn’t change when I physically feel uncomfortable.

@Nica What do you mean by nothing needs to change and doesn’t change when you’re physically uncomfortable?

@NJmom For example: I have a groinal response from a scene on TV. So what? Nothing changes and it doesn’t matter unless I respond and assign meaning to the groinal—which went says in half a second because I did nothing.

@Nica Went away*

@Nica That’s really interesting. Bc that’s my issue, I get the tightness of chest feeling, anxiety, etc from a scene on TV - and then I revert to doing a compulsion to deal with it. But you’re saying, do nothing and let the feeling pass? Sit with the bad feeling until it goes away?

@NJmom Yep, exactly 👍🏻 The more you give into your OCD and anxiety, the worse it gets.

@Nica Thank you. I’m new to this all. Just started treatment. The thought of just sitting with the bad thought and not doing a compulsion (which sadly feels second nature at this point) seems so scary but I’m hoping with time and therapy this gets better. Really appreciate your insight.

@NJmom It’s definitely scary but remember that your brain is the one telling you it’s scary; thoughts and feelings are not facts though. You are in control.

@Nica I need to figure out who “I” am - bc it feels like my brain/thoughts/feelings control me. Even though rationally I’m like why am I letting this bother me?

@Nica Àll of this sounds ocd, but when i told about my struggles here all i got is "its normal", when i told about my concern about losing my dog or the ones i love i got told "its normal", when i got sick and was worrying about my health I got told its normal, when i worried about my loved ones health i got told the same.. now im having emotional problem, affaid im being numb and that im pushing away emotions and not dealing with them, i dont feel like its ocd cause all is s real concern and i got lost in it cause i cant deal with these emotions. I got so lost in advices and videos that now i see everything as a trauma and i have this and that cause i have a trauma and its just completely shifted from having ocd to having deeper problems where i got lost. All the trauma searching got me more triggered and developed more fear, cause if i feel like something isnt right or its too much now i think im avoiding the truth and im not facing my problems, and now everytime feel like im avoiding. I feel like all the advices you get from the internet doesnt help cause the simple one is too simple and it doesnt make you deal with the actual problem, and ignoring and trying to live your life eventually becomes a compulsion cause you try to do it so hard,and the other advice to go deeper gets you lost and now everything is a trauma and you lie to yourself and youre a coward not facing the reality of your struggles... Many tells you to label everything as ocd but life is not like that and i did that, all i did was pushing away my problems and not dealing with them, but to go deeper and see your struggles made me go thinking everything is because i wasnt loved, i had bad parents, i had this trauma, now im like this and it doesnt help its just gives me guilt and shame and im avoiding to say this cause then the basic responds are "its normal that it makes you shame cause traumas are like that" well a sexual thought or a harm thought make you feel shame too and it doesnt mean that its because you have a trauma.... But again this was just an exemple many times i dont have just these basic ocd problems, i have problems with emotions, some thoughts entering my mind like i dont get enough love and now im afraid that its because i didnt get enough attention or love from childhood, its because of my parents, then im panicing that i shouldnt blame others cause it doesnt help and i just spin around about what to do with this emotions and eventually i just try to ignore cause i go nowhere with that but then it feels like im pushing it down and avoiding...

@PRIV8 If you have trauma/PTSD, then you need to work with a trauma specialist to recover from your PTSD, and then you do ERP for your OCD, or else both mental illnesses will just get worse. It’s normal to have multiple therapists if you have multiple mental illnesses.