Posted by Tamar on July 10, 2005, at 4:29:25
In reply to Re: embarrassing problem with T » Tamar, posted by smokeymadison on July 10, 2005, at 1:57:50
> do you think that i might have a problem with my therapist's obesity b/c i have problems with my self image (related to my weight)? i was anorexic in high school and bulimic off and on for a few years. i haven't had any problems lately but i am wondering if i ever really got over my own weight issues. would that make sense?
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> SMIt would make sense that your feelings about your therapist’s body could be related to your feelings about your own body. Did you have problems with other people’s weight when you were anorexic and bulimic? Is that what you think is the most likely explanation?
Sometimes problems we’ve dealt with can come back a little. If you think there’s any chance that your past feelings of poor self image may be re-emerging, then I think it’s very important that you tell your therapist how you’re feeling.
If, on the other hand, it just doesn’t feel right when you ‘try it on’ as an explanation, then it might be something else. Possibly something that comes from the time you were anorexic or bulimic but not so directly related to your own weight issues. For example, is there’s anything going on in your life now that makes you feel the way you did when you were a teenager and young adult? It might be completely unrelated to your body image but it could be bringing up complex emotions that you used to associate with your self image.
I only thought of this because I was quite upset recently about my failure to breastfeed my son and I thought it was connected to my ambivalence about my body. But I couldn’t understand why I was so upset about it now, when I thought I’d dealt with it. And then I realised it’s a problem now because of my feelings of failure at work and my fear that I could lose my job, which remind me of my anxiety about my poor performance at school at a time when I was attacked. So the real problem for me right now is my feelings about work but those feelings seem to be manifesting themselves in a recurrence of my feelings about several past events. Once I understood all that I was able to concentrate on the problems at work, which I’d been avoiding.
I hope that makes some sense. And I really hope you bring this up with your therapist, because I’m sure she will understand that there’s a reason why you feel that way you do, and that it’s not a criticism of her as a person.
Tamar
poster:Tamar
thread:524953
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/psycho/20050706/msgs/525656.html