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Joined 2 years ago
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Cake day: July 9th, 2023

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  • Yeah I feel like volunteering and community action is a few steps down the line. As for how to find people who can hear you out - they do exist. To be honest I answered a local reddit post looking for friends. I think her post mentioned she was struggling with mental health issues. It’s important to be open about that from the start. Maybe I got lucky, but we turned out to have so much in common. We started taking long walks once a week. Not too much of a commitment, but I had something to look forward to every week. And yeah, there was some trauma dumping from both of us at times. It’s far less embarrassing when there’s a back and forth, and we found we could relate to a lot of each other’s experiences.

    It may seem counterintuitive that you need to find someone who is also struggling. It’s much easier for us to have compassion for someone else, even if our situations are the same. But eventually you’ll realize that if your depressed friend deserves your compassion then so do you.

    And so what if you have to try this a few times to find the right person or it doesn’t pan out? At least you tried something and got some fresh air.



  • I understand where you’re coming from, completely. It definitely feels like being silenced (again, because let’s face it, this shit is mentally throwing us right back into childhood when our needs and feelings were ignored). I understand that desperate feeling of needing to be heard. But we’re adults now, and the people at work aren’t your parents. There’s nothing obligating them to listen. Even my spouse needs time where I’m not ranting about politics. An hour a day is all he can do right now, and this is someone who cares about how I feel. But this isn’t a rejection of my feelings.

    One thing I’ve personally had to realize is that the stuff about politics isn’t actually you. You have to find a way to have a degree of separation between the political and your actual core. I know it looks like they’re the same thing right now. But think about what you really want to accomplish, think about what kind of culture you want to create at work. Do you want everyone to be as upset as you are? Would that make a good working environment? If you want others to be more compassionate, I think coming from a place of compassion yourself might work better. Right now it sounds like you’re treating people in ways you probably wouldn’t want others treating you. You can still be true to yourself, your ideals, and values without being quite so forceful. For some reason beyond my immediate comprehension, demonstrating the intensity of your feelings doesn’t translate into people caring - it’s rather the opposite.

    This was a really hard lesson for me and took a few weeks to fully understand and think through. I hope you have someone likeminded in your life you can talk to outside of work. If you don’t, please consider trying to find a new friend. You need someone who already understands, who you don’t need to convince, to blow off steam with. Good luck.


  • No, those are different things. Intrusive thoughts are your brain telling you terrible things like you suck at your work or your hobbies, you’re worthless, your friends don’t actually like you, and hey remember that time you did a cringey thing in front of people? They’re not true, and you’re not intentionally having these thoughts, but your brain can’t easily rationalize them away. It’s usually something that builds up over a lifetime so that you don’t even realize it’s happening. Thats how so many people get stuck believing the intrusive thoughts.






  • That’s really not true though. I have met so many people who are married that I would never be attracted to! And there are probably loads of people out there who would never be attracted to me or my spouse. The only thing that matters is that we’re attracted to each other.

    But the fact that you use the phrase “dating successfully” like there’s a right way to do it… there isn’t. Relationships are messy, and attraction is really only a small part of the whole thing. Stop reading game theory or whatever, that’s the real reason you’re having a hard time.








  • It sounds like you might not be ready for behavioral therapy just yet, especially in a group setting. Behavioral therapy, IMO, is sort of the last step in the process, where you already know what you’re doing wrong and are just trying to correct your behavior.

    Before all that, you may need a period of validation. CBT is extra hard for people who have been invalidated their whole lives. You may need to figure out which of your behaviors are “you” and which are just maladaptive coping mechanisms. You need to be able to identify your emotions for CBT to work. It sounds like you don’t have the time/space to really feel and explore the emotions that are coming up in these group sessions.

    I would ask the session leader if you could do some one-on-one sessions before going back to the group. Everyone’s different, and if it feels like this isn’t working for you it’s ok to step back and take a different approach.



  • I understand wanting to protest, but what could it possibly accomplish? If you are protesting the incoming administration, they’re certainly not going to care. If you’re protesting the current administration, there’s nothing they can do. If you’re protesting the people who didn’t vote, I’m pretty sure they already know we’re mad at them. As of yet there’s no evidence of outright cheating (if it turns out there is, that would be a better time to protest). But protesting just because you don’t like the results of a race is a bit like throwing a tantrum.