by aetienne » Fri Apr 05, 2013 5:15 pm
You're having trouble connecting with the different versions of yourself through time. I have the same exact problem. I usually quickly describe it as "having difficulty empathizing with myself," although it is actually more complicated than that.
You're in one emotion in this hour, and a few hours later you're in a different emotion, and that prior emotion begins to feel alien. You don't understand how it got there, or why it was so easy to get out of. It becomes difficult to understand what is "critical" from what is "not important" because it all seems essentially the same. It was "not important" before so how could it be "critical" now? Knowing my history, I have a feeling this won't be "critical" tomorrow, so how can it be "critical" now? Even fluctuations of the intensity of emotions in ranges of 1-5 minutes makes it difficult for you to evaluate what is going on.
It is all massively, incredibly, confusing. And that is what can cause you to think that you are doing "fine" and don't need to see a therapist because you are wrapped in this "I'm fine" moment and have much difficulty identifying with the painful moments you were experiencing before.
One thing that is helpful is to split of a "monitoring thread" in your consciousness. All this thread does is record your actions and feelings (actually write down in a book if you want to). Very simple observational records of yourself. "I had difficulty moving." "I had anxiety that caused my hear to hurt a lot." "I cried 3 times that day." "I felt hollow and empty." Then when you look back, you do not need to empathize with yourself, you just need to think critically about your actions. Then you can draw conclusions, "My actions show a behavior that I need to fix something." That way, you can still work towards fixing it even if you don't feel the problem at the moment.