Day 1 of my t's vacation and i'm already a mess

[PeppermintTea]

Hey everyone! I'm new here and this is my first time posting.

I've been seeing my T for 2.5 months (2-3x/week) and my attachment to him is extremely strong. I hate how dependent I feel, but he keeps telling me it's at a healthy level. Anyway, he is on his honeymoon for the next week and I'll be out of the country for two weeks after that. So that means three weeks of no contact. He said I can email him if I'm in crisis, but he warned me it's not confidential (it goes through his secretary).

Recently we've just started (slowly) getting into the nitty gritty of my trauma. There are big chunks I don't recall, but a few bits have come back since I started therapy. It's been AWFUL remembering those pieces and I'd rather they not come back. Well as luck would have it, the day he leaves (today) I remembered a significant little chunk of what happened and I'm a complete mess. I'm not sure if I'm more upset by what I remember or the fact that I have to sit with it by myself for three weeks.

He gave me his tea strainer as a transitional object of sorts and I'm over here clutching it like my life depends on it and staring at his picture on his website. I can't believe I'm at this place. Oh, and it also doesn't help that my husband is away this weekend for work.

Anyway, do you guys have any tips for surviving time apart from your T? Is it "normal" to be handling it this poorly? I'm hoping that as the days go on it will get continually easier...?

 

[Deleted member 37474]

Hey everyone! I'm new here and this is my first time posting.

I've been seeing my T for 2.5 mon...

I think it is pretty normal to feel stress when your therapist is away. Mine will be gone the 4th week of October and I am already stressing about it.

 

[MyWillow]

I recently had a 5 week break. Ugh. I don’t have a particularly strong attachment - although she’s fabulous - just that sessions have been really rocky of late and we’ve kinda opened Pandora’s Box as it were.

Ideally, I would have liked to have focused on the simple coping techniques like breath, self-care, journaling, actively dissociating what I couldn’t deal with and having support from my partner.

In reality, I worked longer hours, had a few drinks every night, got disproportionately upset, had trouble switching off and my partner was, albeit temporarily, extremely unhelpful.

I do quite like the idea of writing a list of self-care activities that you can use as a go to when you’re feeling under pressure.

 

[PeppermintTea]

I recently had a 5 week break. Ugh. I don’t have a particularly strong attachment - although she’s...

Making a list of self care activities to keep on hand...that's a great idea! I'm going to work on my list tomorrow. Thanks!!

 

[Emotional girl]

When my T went away in August for two weeks I found it quite hard.What I would say is try to take it one day at a time.I wrote a couple of letters to mine whilst he was away and then showed them to him when he came back and that really helped.
I know it seems like forever but time will go by and he will be back soon.

 

[rubyrose]

I've been seeing my T for 3 years on and off and recently had a break of 9 weeks between sessions whilst she was on holiday. This was at times really distressing - just not having anyone to talk through stuff that came up, flashbacks etc. For me it was keeping busy, walking, yoga, mindfulness and writing down anything that came up for me. I also made a point of catching up with a friend on the day (Friday) that I would usually have an appointment.
I got through and have now reconnected (even though the first session back was difficult).
Just take one day at a time, and remember take care and love yourself!!