Posted by Tamar on June 28, 2005, at 18:45:00
In reply to Re: Failed my homework assignment already. Trigger » Tamar, posted by Dinah on June 28, 2005, at 17:05:28
> When he suggested that I try reducing my reliance on my forgetting sleep, if I found the discontinuity in my life unpleasant, I asked if I shouldn't have some other coping mechanism on hand before I tried. Brush up on my anxiety reducing skills, etc.
Good question!
> He said that I just needed to learn to tolerate pain like everyone else because trying to avoid it was causing me more trouble than bearing the pain would.
>
> I suppose he's right, but...He may well be right. But where do you start? And to be honest, I really think there are different levels of emotional pain, just like there are different levels of physical pain. Tolerating pain is all very well if it's tolerable. But if it's intolerable, people need to find ways of controlling it.
I suspect that dissociating and self harm are often ways of controlling intolerable pain. Once these techniques are learned they can be applied to any pain, including pain that you might be able to tolerate. I don't know, though, whether you can learn to ration your use of dissociation so that you only use it for intolerable pain. I would think you'd need to focus on a very specific but minor pain and practice facing it without dissociating. Or something like that.
I don't know if I'm making any sense. But I hope the grogginess and sleepiness get better soon.
Tamar
poster:Tamar
thread:520589
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/psycho/20050628/msgs/520727.html