Today, at the end of the session, my therapist said that ‘it’s always fun talking to you’ with a slight smile.
I replied with a low tone thank you not showing too much facial reaction.
Ngl, it has gotten me really cheerful and a bit happy today.
My question is: Does T’s do this often? Is this normal?
How should i take this?
Hey everyone! After years of struggling with anxiety, I have figured out what helps and wanted to share.
Dedicate 15 minutes a day as your official 'worry time'. When anxious thoughts come up outside that window, write them down in a journal and tell yourself you'll address them later. It sounds simple but is surprisingly effective at stopping the spiral.
When anxiety spikes, your rational mind is already offline. Trying to think your way out doesn't work because the amygdala has bypassed your prefrontal cortex. Ground your body first with the 5-4-3-2-1 method, breathing, cold water on wrists, then think.
Draw two columns in a journal. Left column is for the anxious thought. Right is for what the evidence actually says. Most anxious thoughts can't survive contact with actual facts.
Realising that my anxiety wasn't one thing but different types in different contexts changed how I responded to it. GAD feels different to social anxiety which feels different to health anxiety. The tools that work for each are different.
If you have separation anxiety or health anxiety, do just one check-in. One message, one google. Then stop and redirect. Checking repeatedly temporarily reduces anxiety but increases it in the long term.
Avoiding things that make you anxious feels safer, but it teaches your brain that the thing is genuinely dangerous. Write down your fears starting with the least scary version of the situation. This is the most effective evidence-based approach for most anxiety types and helped me the most.
What has actually helped you? Particularly interested in things that worked when nothing else was.
Hello all, first time posting! I’m currently in therapy, working on not dissociating from childhood trauma. I work as a nurse in an acute care setting and my supervisor wants me to fill out an accommodation form. Any suggestions?
After therapy I realize I feel so so tired and emotionally drained. I’ve been on the couch for almost 3 hours sleeping in and out. How do I lift myself up for the day?
Using Ai for therapy and I feel like I've made progress and I am wondering are other people getting good or bad advice?
Need some outside perspective because I'm trying to figure out whether this is relationship anxiety, insecurity, or a valid concern.
My boyfriend (20M) and I (almost 20F) have been together for a few years. Recently, his ex randomly followed him on Instagram. He has a public account, so it's not like he accepted a request or anything, but it definitely made me uncomfortable. We talked about it and he was understanding and ended up removing her as a follower.
A few days later, at the beginning of a 12-hour road trip home, I noticed that his ex's mom follows him too. I genuinely don't know if I had just never noticed it before, but once I saw it, it got stuck in my head for the entire trip. About 4 of those hours I was driving alone with nothing but my thoughts, and some of my friends were telling me how weird they thought it was, which probably didn't help.
The thing is, I genuinely do not think my boyfriend would cheat on me. If someone asked me logically whether I think he's doing something behind my back, I'd say no. But I think I struggle with uncertainty. Sometimes I find myself thinking, "What makes us different?" because cheating seems so common. I know a lot of people who got cheated on probably trusted their partner too.
I'm also not in the best place confidence-wise lately. I've been comparing myself to other women, my relationship,struggling with my appearance, my body, my skin, etc. I'm also about to turn 20 and am in the middle of applying to nursing schools, so I'm pretty stressed overall.
After I got home from the trip, I finally talked to him about it over the phone. The conversation actually went well. He seemed genuinely confused about why I thought the follow was new and said her mom has always followed him. He wasn't defensive or angry. At one point I apologized for creating conflict and he told me that we weren't having a conflict, just an uncomfortable discussion.
The weird part is that even when conversations go well, I almost always feel awful afterward. Even if he's validating and understanding, I start thinking things like, "Why did I even bring this up?" or "I sound insane." I usually feel a lot better when we talk about things in person, but over the phone I tend to sit afterward and replay the entire conversation in my head.
I've actually been considering therapy because I notice that I get stuck in these thought loops where I convince myself I'm missing something, even when I don't actually think my partner is doing anything wrong.
Does this sound like relationship anxiety/insecurity? Has anyone else had a partner respond well to a concern but still felt guilty or embarrassed for bringing it up afterward? How do you stop spiraling once the conversation is already over?
Me and my girlfriend have been dating for nearly 8 months. Before I met her I often felt a lack of emotion, I’d never get overly excited nor overly sad, I felt as if everything was dull. I never noticed this until maybe 7 months before her and k started talking. If anything I would feel moments of deep despair and loneliness but never deep moments of happiness. Which was strange because it had been some of the most exciting times of my life. I just moved into college and started uni. When her and I started talking I felt like things changed, I would feel deep moments of love and affection, and deep moment dog loneliness and even anxiety when we were away for long periods of time (weeks and close to 2 months), I think this had something to do with maybe some past trauma from previous relationships
I would say that maybe 4 months into dating, we started going into rough patches In our relationship, not only because the honeymoon phase was over but because she was going through health issues regarding surgeries and mental health issues. We had arguments and things seemed very awful for a while, I think this is when I started to notice most of the time I would feel frustrated with her, I built resentment in my heart and started to question my relationship. We worked most things out but I’ve struggled to move on from that period of struggle and resentment. Things have gotten better but I think I can still resent her. I’ve noticed things she does which frustrate me so much. I’ve started thinking about if I had started talking to someone else? What would my life look like? Would I be happier? I notice that I’ve looked at other women with interest when I never used to. I don’t know if this is interest in a relationship or if it’s just thinking they’re attractive and moving on.
Let me be clear, she is an amazing person, we have worked though a lot and she has been so loyal. Sure she has issues, everyone does. Sometimes I think of her and I miss her so much but then the next i wouldn’t feel so intense about those feelings. It’d feel like “I’m enjoying my alone time and I’d probably be happier if she wasn’t here” which I don’t think I’ve ever felt towards someone I had been interested in. (Note my longest relationship had been maybe a month before this so this is new to me). I don’t want to break up with her but I can’t get the thought out my head. I don’t want to feel this way, I don’t want to think of other people, I don’t want to think of breaking up with her, I don’t want to feel nothing, I want to feel the ups and downs of life not just some bland and blank emotion.
What do I do? Should I go to therapy? I can’t talk to my girlfriend about this because it would destroy her and I need to know what’s wrong with me and why i felt this way before meeting her and why when we started talking things felt better? Also why they’ve gotten worse again? Any insight would be appreciated