Pretend As A Method Of Coping

[mary1979]

Its not stupid at all.

And far from unhealthy, imagination can be a much welcome relief from the daily brain drain we live 100% of the time.

Some of us use alcohol to escape, others go for drugs.
You tell me what's more healthy?

When I was young I had the typical daydream.
A handsome prince would ride up on his white horse, admonishing my parents for being so shit full to me and whisking me away to his castle for happily ever after...


Too many Disney films?
Maybe, but hey I'm a live to tell the tale.

You're having a bad day aren't you?
There's nothing 'stupid' about escapism of your kind.
I might apply stupid if you were swigging from a bottle of cheap plonk while singing 3 bottles of rum.
A very cool stupid though xx

 

[Suzetig]

I did this a lot as a child, I would pretend I was a character in a TV programme and have adventures with the other characters. I can still get really lost in someone else's story or fantasy but it tends now to be books or movies. I know for me the pretending was a form of dissociation - I would basically dream myself into another life.

In writing this, I wonder if that's why I really dislike sci-fi or fantasy books/movies - they're not "real" enough for me to escape into?

 

[Bigray79]

Its not stupid at all.

And far from unhealthy, imagination can be a much welcome relief from the dai...

How about a black knight xo

 

[The Albatross]

Meh. I guess this is a stupid post and I'm a stupid person.

Not a stupid post.... in some recovery circles it's called "acting as if".

Shawn Achors did a TedX talk about his sister "Amy the Unicorn" ... as an illustration about positive psychology. Da link... plus at the end is a challenge, 5 things for 26 or so days... very beneficial. At one time we did a p.c. group challenge here using them:
Link Removed

 

[Ava Jarvis]

Its not stupid at all.

And far from unhealthy, imagination can be a much welcome relief from the dai...

:hug:

It was a bad day. It's gonna be a streak of bad days. I never recover from being triggered on Mother's Day gracefully.

Come Father's Day it'll get worse. Thanksgiving will disembowel me, an Christmas feels like tactical nuke strikes. New Years is pretty bad too. Especially during Christmas there is no medication strong enough at safe doses to keep the PTSD, bipolar, and anxiety at bay. We have tried.

So every year I try new stuff to cope. I analyze my failures to cope, and try more new stuff. I try some incredibly silly stuff at times, but never drugs or alcohol or cigs. Nothing has worked but I keep trying.

 

[Ronin]

an Christmas feels like tactical nuke strikes.

Enough time to figure a cover and Not Be There (physically, mentally, both)?

 

[Ava Jarvis]

Enough time to figure a cover and Not Be There (physically, mentally, both)?

Heh. I have tried sleeping through the holidays but it doesn't work.

And even though I have great friends in San Francisco they are away during Christmas. Everyone is busy on Christmas. It ends up just being me and the shadows. It is incredibly scary.

I have never spent a Christmas observing a functional family except maybe on tv and even then I'm not too sure it's real.

Sigh. I wish I could distract myself by going out or taking a trip but the possibility of being triggered into a full flashback involving the fight or flight response is far too high when I'm with other people during thanksgiving and Christmas.

Just me and the shadows.

If I can successfully pull off a way to not be so horribly assaulted during the holidays it'd be great.

At least I won't kill myself. One Christmas I bought a bottle of wine and some sleeping pills. But I ended up flushing the pills in the toilet and pouring the wine into the sink instead.

I just keep going somehow.

 

[Ronin]

It ends up just being me and the shadows. It is incredibly scary.

Time to make shadows your companions and someone you can trust, or at least play around with, then?

I have never spent a Christmas observing a functional family except maybe on tv

Christmas don't require families, though?
Not even when one's a Christian or holding the holiday for a myriad of reasons?
Last I understood it, it was about creation & light brought into the world.

Families clearly are not a light in yours - So who, what, how, IS that light for you?

If I can successfully pull off a way to not be so horribly assaulted during the holidays it'd be great.

Perhaps finding & enlisting new protectors for that, even as a temporary company that will be ditched straight after the holidays?

At least I won't kill myself.

That is a very good thing to know and please hold to that resolution.

 

[Ava Jarvis]

Time to make shadows your companions and someone you can trust, or at least play around with, then?



Ch...

Heh. Maybe. It's just that I'm pretty sure these shadows are a manifestation of my father. Painful history there. Any dreams or hallucinations involving shadows always part to reveal him there, knives out and ready to kill me. Sometimes also bits and pieces of my mother's corpse. Bloody knives.

It's pretty bad.

Light has always been other people for me. It's ironic and sad.

 

[Ronin]

Light has always been other people for me. It's ironic and sad.

Grab all the light they've given you, and make it home within you. It's already there.

So: What of light have you learned while connected with those people, and can apply now / or don't know how to apply, but find it something desired, needed, wished, in your life?

 

[Ava Jarvis]

Grab all the light they've given you, and make it home within you. It's already there.

So: What of light...

Hum. I actually don't know. It's a good question I can discuss with my friends.

I need to take a break from this particular piece of the conversation right now tho. I feel really really terrible. I think I probably triggered myself. My heart is beating so so fast and hard.

 

[Ronin]

I need to take a break from this particular piece of the conversation right now tho

Totally and please have a safe morning / day. ;)

I'm mostly posing these questions in the typical fashion of 'if anything in them can be useful or helpful, take at wish, leave out if not applicable or not desired.'

Thank you for sharing with me.