Loosing control

Kelly - posted on 06/15/2012 ( 18 moms have responded )

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Back story - you can skip it if you know me

Unconventional childhood--no parents are parent-like adults in the picture, homeless and all that. Long string of bad luck, then sudden bout of good luck. Due to the .... I don't know what you call it ... I never learned about emotions and all--the adults in my life were the clientele of a string of high-end, posh restaurants where people nod, smile politely, and even in the most heated of arguments rarely raise their voices above a whisper.

The now

I know I'm effed up in the head, and I pay a world renowned doctor to .... I don't know.... help me cope with my effed up head. (How funny is it that "effed" is an actual word!)
So, for years and years I've hidden all of my emotions except the few I saw the patrons use because I guess I figured I should not have those, or if I did, I didn't know what to do with them. Eventually, I just stopped being able to feel anything--no connection to people, no empathy, etc. I had "sociopathic tenancies" as they say.

Apparently, this is not healthy, so Dr. Asshole (as we shall lovingly refer to him) has decided to help me find these emotions, feel them, and eventually express them in a healthy way. I've been working at this for YEARS--literally, I started therapy 9 years ago--and I am finally making some progress.

The problem, is that now I'm having all these emotions and I cannot control them. Three times this week, I've wanted to hit my child--I have NEVER actually WANTED to hit anyone, or anything. Not only that, but I threw a vase and a lamp at my doctor, and broke $600 worth of crystal wine glasses against my livingroom wall.

My doctor says this is wonderful, that now that I can feel emotions, I can start learning to control them, but what if it takes as long to learn to control them as it did to finally feel them?? I'll hurt someone.

Furthermore, I don't LIKE feeling this crap! It hurts, sometimes it makes me feel sick, my face burns, and my breathing gets weird. And crying SUCKS!!!!! Until a few months ago, I didn't know what crying felt like, and the few times I did it, I didn't know that's what it was and thought I was getting sick. A huge, very painful knot comes in my throat! My eyes water uncontrollably and I loose control of the muscles in my face and they contort my face into a horrid, scrunched up mess! Why would anyone want that????

I think I was better off the way I was. I wanted to feel emotions, but this is not pleasant, and now I can't seem to go back to not feeling them.





And to top things off, my husband who has been away on business for 2 weeks came home today, and basically said I would be a looser if I hadn't met & married him. I really want sex, but I don't want to have sex with him because every time I try to think about it, the comment swims into my mind. It hurts so much because I know that at least in some part, the statement has some truth to it, and it hurts because I can't figure out what to do to fix it. I've always been able to fix everything.....this just sucks.

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18 Comments

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Kristi - posted on 06/21/2012

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I think most people think your life was harder because um...it was. But I do understand what you're saying and it is a fantastic perspective. I just don't think you give yourself enough credit for the extreme odds that you beat.

On that note, Little Bunny, you keep hoppin, I'm going to go to sleep now, I hope. (and dream of GPS's being thrown at stupid drivers all across the land! : ) ) Enjoy your lunch and visit with your friend!

Kelly - posted on 06/21/2012

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lol. I can laugh about it today.....it's funnier in retrospect.

"What kept you going throughout everything?"
I honestly don't think I knew how to give up. It's literally never crossed my mind--I've never been suicidal, or wanted to run away from anything. I'm like the Energizer bunny--I just keep mindlessly marching on!

I don't know what your crap bag entails, but I think we all have our big struggles. We take the damage and keep moving on, and we all find our own way of managing the damage. Someone once told me that struggles were like exercise--they are painful and difficult, but they make us stronger. Also, my life is very easy now, not just compared to what it used to be, but to almost everyone else's lives--It's like all my hard stuff happened at the beginning, and now I get to enjoy some time where things go right. I think for most people, it seems like my life was harder because it all crashed down at once and I was so young, whereas their struggles are just as difficult, they are just spread out over a life time so it seems less intense......does that make sense? That's how I see it in my head, but we all know things aren't exactly right up there :P

Kristi - posted on 06/20/2012

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I'm ashamed to admit it but I just honestly LOL about throwing your GPS out the window. I'm sure it was not funny at the time but I think we can all appreciate the urge to do something like that! I will check your other thread for the details.

I don't know if I'd say "ditz." ; ) I wasn't very clear and I reread it and could easily see how you got that. I just ASSumed you'd know what I was talking about. So we'll call it even and go from there.

You continue to amaze me with the strength and bravery you have shown all your life. So I don't know who or what Graves is but I would never have made it out of there alive. I almost didn't make it out of my crap bag, which by comparison was a fairy tale. What kept you going throughout everything? I think you give new meaning to the word "survivor." Someday you should write your autobiography. Or ghost write it (I think that's what I mean...). Your story would bring so much hope and inspiration to others, not just to people like me but to everyone. So, I'm going to shut up before I trigger your feelings of creepy and crawly. haha I am serious though and you said yourself you are a genius, how could it not be incredible?

Kelly - posted on 06/20/2012

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"I'm sorry, I meant when you talk about things with your therapist." --Kristi C



OH! Lol, that makes MUCH more sense! I can be a total ditz on occasions, but in my defense, I'm a genius in other areas :P



I really have never had a problem with getting too emotional with my doctor (until now!) because I didn't really feel any emotion. When I would describe things, it was just a sequence of events, and when asked to describe my feelings, I couldn't--I could tell him the actions they caused me to take, but I not my emotions. Previous doctors thought I just didn't know how to identify feelings, but this doc thinks I have completely suppressed them. I think he's right, because I'm sure as hell feeling things now, and I am very able to identify them.



Speaking of feeling things--I threw my GPS out the window while driving at 70mph today. More about that in my "Happy Vent" thread, though that was NOT a happy moment.



My husband knows about my homeless childhood, my fathers addiction, and my mother's kidnapping, the cancer and Graves, but he does not know about anorexia, etc.. He knows I go to therapy for severe ADD and I'm sure he knows there's a bit more to it, but I do not discuss it with him. The friend I ran into at my doctor's office also knows about the anorexia. I did NOT tell him--he figured it out on his own as we began to spend more time together. He is the only person who has ever noticed! When he figured it out, he told me he knew and we never discussed it again.

Kristi - posted on 06/20/2012

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I'm sorry, I meant when you talk about things with your therapist. When I talk about what I've been through, most of the time, I can't get emotional there because I know I won't be able to shut it off in 45 minutes. Wow, not even your husband knows? How do you keep it from him? I don't mean morally, I mean like how do "explain" your history, what has made you the person you are today. I also don't mean that in a way like "made you into some kind of freak" lol, just like, we are who we are because of where we've been and what've been through.

That is really awesome that you are working to help the homeless and the way our society views people that are or have found themselves in that tragic situation. Judgemental people suck. I suppose it's learned just like prejudice. People aren't born with an attitude of entitlement and that they are somehow more superior than another for any number of reasons. Well, I do consider myself better than pedophiles and murderers, etc but that's not really what I'm talking about. It's been my experience that those who judge others have been narrow minded, ignorant about and unwilling to learn anything about who or what they are critizing and plain old mean.

Ok, enough of my little tirade. ; ) Well if you have a website or FB page I can "LIKE" to help raise awareness, I'd be happy to do that. I don't know how helpful it would be because I only have 104 friends but it can't hurt. I hope you had a good day.

Kelly - posted on 06/20/2012

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I don't talk about it in real life--no one in my real life knows about my mental health issues except my doctors, and one very good friend, but that was an accident--I ran into him in the waiting room at my doctor's office. I didn't know him that well at the time and was angry until he reminded me that *he was there too! So we let it go along the lines of "you look past mine, I'll look past your's". We do not discuss it, we just both know the other is in therapy....rather often, we both go twice a week.



The physical health issues I have no problem talking about. It's just something that happened to me, lots of people get sick.



I am very, very passionate about homelessness, but until recently, I was very guarded about who I would tell about my past. There is a stigma to homelessness, and even though I am not poor now, there are still people who consider me trash because of my beginnings. Recently, about a year or so ago, I guess, I decided I wanted to focus on destigmatizing those who have been without a home, so now I am very, very open about my past......not all of it, mind you, but the parts that can impact my goals.

Kristi - posted on 06/18/2012

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Kelly--

First of all, thank you for sharing all that. I don't know if it is hard for you to talk about it or if you just kind of talk about it as if it happened to someone else and you're just telling the story now. Most of the time that's what I do when I talk about my crap bag. Second, you can take your "not THAT brave" comment and shove it up your, well you pick. You beat cancer! TWICE! I don't know the odds on that, but I'm sure you do and I bet they aren't very high. I don't know what, if any, thoughts/feelings you have about God but I do believe in Him and I think he wants you around for something big. Nobody survives what you have, and I'm basing that on the very little I've picked up here. Idk, that's just my opinion, a religious, mentally ill stalker! lol But I'm not religious or a stalker. I believe in God and I think you are amazing. I hope you have been kicking anorexia's ass, too.

I think DBT can still be successful if you don't go to a group. I think the group is helpful for support and understanding. The others also might have suggestions on how a certain skill might work for them, that might end up working for you, stuff like that. But I think a doctor or counselor who knows DBT can help a person understand it so they can practice and use it on regular basis. But hey, I'm no doctor. This is based soley on my experience with it and my counselor and doctor. It takes a long time to become a "natural." Not all parts of DBT work for everybody. But it has helped me with controlling my emotions much better than I used to, how to make it through stressful situations in a healthier way, impulse control and with my suicidal ideations and self harming thoughts/behaviors. But it took me quite awhile to slow everything down long enough to use the skills. Anyways, you and your doctor know your needs, not me and you are obviously on the right track so I should just zip it! ; )

Thanks again for your candidness!

Dove - posted on 06/18/2012

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Emotions suck! I'm sorry. I don't know what else to say. :( ♥

Kelly - posted on 06/18/2012

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Thanks Kristi, you don't sound stalkerish at all :)



I Goggled DBT and actually my doctor has taught me a lot of that stuff, but I don't think he ever referred to is at that....I'll have to ask him. He did talk to me recently about going to a group session once a week, but I don't do that--my life is very well compartmentalized right now and introducing variables and unknowns opens up a risk I'm just not ready for at the moment (see, I'm not THAT brave!), so if it is like it said and one part won't work without the other, it's out for me....at least for now.



I originally sought treatment for anorexia. It was a really stupid thing, you are going to think I'm a moron, but basically my life was so chaotic that I desperately craved control over some part of it, even just a tiny part. Food was it--I couldn't control when I would have food to eat, but I could decide whether to eat it or not when I did have it. So sometimes, even if I was starving, I'd pass up the food, just because I could. Then there was the shame associated with begging for food, so eating became associated with that, and I stopped liking to eat all together. I did alright until I was diagnosed with cancer at 17--then it became a pretty serious issue, despite my best efforts, I just couldn't eat what I needed to in order to survive the chemotherapy. Thus, I was thrust into therapy--I didn't really have a choice in the matter. It was during that therapy, over the next few years that the other issues came to light. I kicked cancer's ass (after 4 years, and it glared it's ugly head last Fall, but I beat it down), but I still struggle with the rest. I really don't have a choice in whether to stick with it or not--I really don't think I could survive without it at this point. I suppose if I'd stopped before we got to this emotions coming out part, I could have, but I can't now.



So, sense I discovered emotions, I've been trying to use ACCEPTS (They talked about it in the DBT Wiki page!!) but I get hung up at the E. And because I have severe ADD, I can't force my mind to think of anything else, so that interferes with P & T as well, and S only works in some situations.

Jayce - posted on 06/18/2012

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Glad you had a good Father's Day.

Kristi - posted on 06/18/2012

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After picking my jaw up off the floor, I sat here and thought about your post. Then I googled the word "Brave" and your name and CoM's profile picture came up. Other than you greeting me on the intro page, (I'm pretty sure that was you) I knew nothing about you until I read this post. It is obvious this is just a scratch on the surface. But, I'm in complete wonderment now. I don't mean to sound stalkerish or weird but I have had a battle with mental illness for 25 years and my ex-husband was diagnosed as a sociopath. I'm not comparing our experiences, just from the little you have shared here, I would not have survived your childhood and my ex wouldn't admit to having a fault as little as a crooked tooth, let alone admitting that he sick and needs help. I have struggled a great deal with impulse control and controlling my emotions though. Has Dr. A ever mentioned anything about DBT (Dialectical Behavioral Therapy)? I don't know if it would be helpful for you, but it really helped(s) me. You should Google it and see what you think of it. You can just type in the initials. Your story is fascinating in that it inspires courage and hope. I don't know what your original motivation was to get help but it is so awesome that you have stuck with it for so long and again, just from the little bit here, it sounds like you are making progress. Anyways, sorry if I sounded like a wackadoodle, I guess I was just overwhelmed. Thank you for sharing. I wish you continued successes.

Bethany - posted on 06/17/2012

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sounds awesome, im sure its a boy thing my hubby never gets cards b4 hand only on the way to see some1 n then its a rush job lol.
glad u had a better day tho ox

Jurnee - posted on 06/17/2012

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glad you had a good fathers day!

Kelly - posted on 06/17/2012

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Thanks, Bethany :)

I am feeling much better today--we had a very good Father's Day despite a few hiccups at the start.

The big hiccup was that J forgot to make cards for his Papas & Father, despite the fact that I reminded him to make them every. single. day. this week. I have been very diligent about teaching J that if we feel affectionate toward someone, we make them a card on special days, so I was very upset that he did not make cards for these men who do so much for him. He threw together some quick cards this morning, but felt bad. In an effort to make him feel better, I said "These look very nice. Your papas will think you really care about them." Then he started crying!



There were a few other hiccups, but by 10am I had found my happy face and we had a very nice day.

Bethany - posted on 06/16/2012

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atm hubby suxs!! i have been thinking about you all day and want to come up with the answer for you but i cant i really wish i could, i feel terrible that all i can say is hang in there you have over come things that others could only dream of...
with or with out hubby you would have made it and maybe hes feeling very insecure that you have these new emotions and to him its a threat cos he could fear that you may not love him, and as i have read from your other posts your still not sure if what you feel is love and that probably scares the shit outta him... BUT in no way am i condoning what he said.
I wish you the best of luck and your in my thoughts.
oxoxox

Jayce - posted on 06/16/2012

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Yes, emotions do suck. I tend to bottle things up and then it comes flying out at the wrong time. But this isn't about me. I'm no expert but it sounds like you're making progress. Hang in there. I read a book that helped me a lot with understanding my emotions "The Happiness Trap" by Russ Harris.

What your hubby said was low. Is it possible that he's not sure how to help you deal with all ofthis?

Sharon - posted on 06/15/2012

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This is a breakthrough for you Kelly. Yes it certainly does suck to feel that way and to cry but you need to be able to feel these things to bring empathy into your life. This is just the beginning, but now that you have reached this point in your therapy there is no reason why it should take you a long time to learn to control the reactions to your feelings. Stay strong and allow yourself to feel and then to heal.

I personally think your husband was very unfair to say what he did to you, he should be trying to make you feel good, not trying make you feel grateful to him.

Jurnee - posted on 06/15/2012

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Hang in there! I agree, some emotions suck and can be hard to handle, but some are great, its kind of a trade off. Good luck and hugs!