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:) Yup -- same here. I've had many discussions with folks on this forum about this exact same thing. I was going to even say something about it, but didn't want to assume. ;) It's not really about feeling sorry for yourself, it's giving yourself permission to feel your emotions, no matter...

First of all, ditto to everything Bell said. :) Same process for me -- had to find my emotions again. After 9 months, I have them now, but I'm still not entirely comfortable with them, although I'm getting there. Your story of growing-up sounds very similar to mine. A big part of the...

While I think it was certainly worth discussing why you felt angry and how to deal with it, I can't imagine that your therapist would take something like that personally. If she did, I would see this as a red flag. Therapists are supposed to be well-aware of the emotional ups and downs that...

The longer I go through recovery, the more I realize that my whole life has been little more than living in a prison of limited emotions and bad feelings. I have had glimpses of what it would be like to be "healed" -- clear thinking, optimism, self-confidence, decisiveness. I'm hopeful for a...

You'll never know if you don't reach-out. :) Being aware that your "friend-picker" is skewed by past trauma, you know that you have to be a little more aware to look for the signs that someone will not be a good connection for you. The only way this gets better is through practice. If the...

I have long had enormous anxiety over social media sites, all kinds of seemingly ridiculous neuroses. With Facebook, I always felt humiliated by what wonderful lives everyone else seemed to be living compared to mine. With LinkedIn, it always seems to be about "keeping up with the Jones'" in...

NYTimes article by David Brooks -- pretty much sums-up the situation.

In the US, at least, the government refuses to accept that it's broke. No one has the courage to deny their constituents what they want. Instead of being good caretakers of our national treasury, they act instead like immature parents who spoil their children to maintain their favor, while...

Just saw this about Cameron's loss. Interesting. Doesn't appear that things are quite done yet -- they're still going to try to make a case and take another vote early next week. France is, apparently, also now asking to wait until the UN inspectors finish and present a preliminary report at...

Heard an ex-government official, from the US, say something very interesting today regarding the legality of a military strike. He said that Syria was not a signatory to any treaty preventing the use of chemical weapons within its own borders. Therefore, as heinous as their usage is, there...

Recovery from trauma can be a two-edged sword. As you recover, you begin to see that many of your friends, and possibly even family, have big problems of their own -- problems that you have resolved -- and this makes these relationships increasingly imbalanced. Just as recovered addicts need...

A lesson that Egypt is having to learn now as well. Someone once said something like the following: the only way such conflicts end is when the combatants decide that they love their children more than they hate each other. I think this is absolutely true for much of the current Middle East.

The Russians only have one motivation -- protect the paltry remainder of their sphere of influence. They'd throw skepticism even if al Assad was filmed personally spraying sarin gas at people. ;) Still, it's important not to underestimate the importance of a country's "sphere of influence"...

Oh, by the way, regarding dreams, my dreams have been much more the gateway to my memory recall and processing that waking flashbacks. Often, what I get as flashbacks are fragmentary glimpses of my dreams. It turns-out, though, that these dreams are often distortions of memories, and that...

I asked my therapist this exact question, once, and, according to her, it's likely that such flashbacks, even though they are not negative themselves, are likely associated with traumatic experiences somehow. For example, the positive flashback might be the memory just before the traumatic even...

:) I actually don't believe this is true. Obama's tenure has seen some economic improvement, the near-ending of two military efforts, and decent security efforts, as well as some domestic progress, if not much. Carter wasn't so lucky, and even George W. Bush's two terms could be argued to be...

Claims of at least 1300 people killed in single attack this week, in a rebel-leaning suburb of Damascus. A large number of the victims were children. Most of the victims had no sign of physical trauma, and had symptoms indicative of nerve gas poisoning. There was also hardly any physical...

This article is definitely NOT related to the Trayvon Martin shooting case. But it does provide a look at the character of Zimmerman. This guy is a lot like OJ Simpson -- his own worst enemy. He can't stop begging for attention. That's why he carries a gun on neighborhood watch. Why he...

This is very true. My daughter is very social, when she's around people she enjoys and feels "safe" -- meaning that she's not get to get awkward stares or nasty comments because she's a little quirky. However, when she's done with people, she's done. She's very polite about it too. :) From...

In a world where people now post every bathroom break on social media, it has become more and more difficult to find solitude and quiet. :) I don't like chit-chat either. I have a co-worker who constantly interrupts me, then proceeds to take 15 to 30 minutes -- or more -- just wanting to chit...

I don't do it in front of people who would be offended, or those I don't personally know. But, being the angry person that I am, swearing is anger's lingua franca. And, sometimes, I can't even come-up with foul-enough swear phrases to match the anger, which, observed by others, is probably...

Everyone else here has pretty much said it all. Great job acting so quickly and definitively. Great job taking care of yourself and your kids. The one thing that sucks is that *you* have to be the one to leave, not him. Hopefully, that's temporary. :)

I need to do this more. I've only recently even begun to recognize the difference between these things. Especially fear. I think I've lived with subconscious fear for so long that I don't have anything else to compare it to. Traditionally, this is something I royally suck at. I've been a...

This is a pretty astounding explanation, IMHO. :) To the extent that this should be published somewhere. I haven't seen as good an explanation of identity anywhere. I will try some of the things you mentioned. Thanks very much! Me too. Significantly. But, like you, I've never been...

As the human population expands, there's less and less room for us to "spread-out", less place for people to "hide", get away, etc. We are becoming more and more packed together, living on top of each other like a nest of rats. This fact, alone, is probably a large cause in the increase in...