Poll Do You Have the Urge to Run When Upset?

[Lucycat]

No. I just freeze.

 

[AvoidanceRulez]

I prefer flipping a bird to running.

But at the same time..I think I'm so gone mentally that it's like I've mentally run as far as I can and can run no further.

 

[Iam]

No. I just freeze.

IMHO Lucy, freezing is running in itself. At least for me it is, because freezing for me means I have withdrawn emotionally and sometimes psychologically as in dissociating.

 

[Srain]

Does packing up the at 3am and driving 800mi with just my dog constitute running???

I'm being flippant, I'm sorry. I grew up doing this. We moved every 2-3 yrs. I didn't know any other way to live until PTSD leveled me and I met my husband. Without him being my rock I would be long gone. I moved in with him and he has given me the room to take off and come 'home'. I don't move anymore. I'm anchored for once in my life. I've had a love/hate relationship with that until this past year when I finally stopped fighting it and unpacked after 10yrs.

I still needed to make a trip across country in order to breathe. He is a homebody, I respect that and want that. Running is in my blood but retraining my mind on the when and how is a job.

R

 

[Vcircle]

I used to physically run - ie drive off in a daze to escape the hurt. Now I don't do that - i have children, responsibilities and it annoys me that people freak out from me disappearing. Now I hurt myself in many ways. I punish myself for being weak.

 

[Srain]

I had an interesting topic about daydreaming as a child come up yesterday, would that fall into this category?

I have never discussed it at length in therapy although I had a very developed one as a child and still do as an adult, hmmmm. It seems much more on the violent/confrontational edge as opposed to having been more the imaging myself in a time and place, usually all alone in a remote location, very at peace.

Just wondering.

Rain

 

[Lady of Longbourn]

I do lots and lots of pacing, and running. Helps me with everything.

 

[just me here]

I used to run when I got overloaded with anger and was also faced with the possibility that I would be in even more trouble if I stayed and did something that I couldn't run away from. It wasn't the incident, it was me avoiding the next incident. Most of the time I was right in doing it, but I also lost a few jobs over it.

As an EMT, I would sometimes get the feeling that I needed to be doing things as fast as I could and was failing at it, I found myself running without realising it. I had to stop myself, I needed my energy for clear thought and good decision making. I was torn between the feeling that I was "burning off" the adrenaline in a positive way by using it to get from place to place quickly, and the knowledge that I was sapping my energy, adding confusion and chaos to the scene, and it just plain made me look unprofessional.

moving your feet as fast as you can is the purist form of "flight" not "fight". Nothing wrong with being a human being.