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What if you have unmanageable feelings, but no words?

User Profile: SmallWonder
SmallWonder February 20th, 2018

What do you do if you have unmanageable seedlings (depression, panic attacks, anxiety), but don

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User Profile: TaranWanderer
TaranWanderer February 20th, 2018

@SmallWonder I think it's normal to feel at a loss for words, I mean, feelings are so intangible and can be really hard to describe, especially if it feels like it's just, everything. But, I don't think it's ever a waste of someone's time to reach out. You can even tell them that you have a hard time talking about it, but that there are feelings there that you want some help with. They may be able to help lead questions in a way that you will be able to find words for :) Your well-being is never ever a waste of time, no matter how difficult it is to talk about, or if you just end up saying things in a general way.

I don't know if it would help at all, but when I had trouble describing my feelings, I was given a list of words like this and can use that to help when I had nothing else :) (even if it doesn't help, it's a nice list of words anyways cheeky)

2 replies
User Profile: SmallWonder
SmallWonder OP February 20th, 2018

@TaranWanderer I have a similar list of feeling words from my therapist (DBT thing). I guess I can name feelings, but then what? I don't have much to back that up. Like right now my body is having a panic attack and I can't breathe (I've taken appropriately proscribed medications and it will pass), but my brain is not at all involved in the panic. I'm disconnected enough that I honestly have no idea what is causing the panic, and that goes for the vast majority of other feelings, too. I don't know WHY, they just ARE. So I'm left feeling like I don't have anything useful to say and there is no point.

1 reply
User Profile: TaranWanderer
TaranWanderer February 20th, 2018

@SmallWonder Ah I know what you mean, I often have feelings that have no known (to me) explanation, where my body is having some kind of reaction like sadness or anxiety but my head doesn't seem to match, a disconnect...I think that might be more common than we think, it's one thing to feel what you're feeling, and another (and arguably a lot harder) to know why it's even happening :S I guess when that happens..you can just talk about what they are and from there try to learn why? To me that's part of a therapist/listener's job, to help you figure out why things are happening and to find the causes that may be hidden. For example sometimes I have an anxiety attack and can't figure out why, but talking it out I find that it was probably from something I was trying to ignore that didn't register as a cause, stuff like that.

I don't think you need to be able to backup or completely explain your feelings in order to talk about them (or, for it to be important to talk about them). As for the "then what"..I guess it depends what you want, if you're looking for trying to find the 'why', or more for just 'what to do when it does happen'--and talking it out with someone based on that. I don't think there's any clear-cut procedure on what to do next, but just feeling it out with someone who listens and seeing what helps/doesn't help. (I hope that makes sense cheeky)

I know sometimes there's not always an answer as to why, but that doesn't mean that what you're going through is any less important or would be useless to talk about. I mean, if it's impacting your life and you want to talk about it/sort it out, I think it's still worth it to just talk about what you can, and it wouldn't be a waste of anyone's time really.

(I'm sorry to hear about your current panic attack though :( but, I'm glad that you have medication to help it pass! I hope it can pass quickly heart)

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