Anonymous Coward · 12d
Okay, so it's about journaling stuff.
I have used your journaling tips and found it very useful and interesting for me. However, I have one big problem.
When I start following the guiding questions, I feel as I write that either alter or myself is starting to get triggered. Too much triggered. It makes me feel very out of control and self-destructive, and most importantly, I feel unable to write any further. I can't bring myself to continue and stop feeling awful, even though the questions themselves are totally okay and useful.
I feel as if with these notes and these questions to myself I dug deeper into my mind and my consciousness cannot cope even with the superficial layer of feelings and emotions that I did not know about and cannot understand where they came from even if I keep asking myself again and again this question.
I feel stuck because I can't get past this layer and can't force myself to keep writing when I get triggered in response to trying to learn more about myself and my feelings and emotions and opinions.
then don't force yourself to write. or rather, just set a timer.
for a lot of parts, they're trapped in an unending torrent of being triggered. to them, there is no end in sight because they're not well connected to parts of you who are going on with daily life and well regulated.
what is recommend if you're experiencing this is to start with something simple to ground:
what day is it? where are you currently? where are you sitting?
and then, engage your senses. what do you see, smell, hear, and feel, around you?
start by writing that down before anything else.
then, start a five minute timer and tell yourself (as a whole) "hey, some bad feelings might come up. I set a time for five minutes. during that five minutes we can feel and express whatever we need to. when that five minutes is up, I'll ask again how you feel. then, whoever is with me is welcome to stay with me for some grounding exercises with me so we can regulate and feel better and then go about our day."
and then do some grounding exercises. I'll reply to this post with 101 of them.
you don't have to explore deeply, and you shouldn't. you're allowed to and encouraged to just do it a little at a time. this is called titration, and it's an important skill. some professionals recommend imagining a dial for your feelings, where you turn it down just a little bit. not all the way, but just enough so you can get a feel, and also still stay present.
Janina fisher has a really good part in her book (pinned in my bio) and about how you can unblend from parts and that might help as well.
