Really like this! Funnily enough the only movies I can watch are those really badly made shark movies (like think jaws but even more ridiculous). I think maybe it’s that they’re kinda ‘scary’ and gory in a pretty tame way, and also pretty predicable and just way too ridiculous to actually be scary in an uncomfortable way
I’ve also actually been thinking a lot about the term ‘maladaptive’ lately. Professionals have specifically used this to refer to my very extreme dissociative experiences which always seemed really weird to me. Like the whole point of dissociation is my brain and body protecting me from experiences that are too painful to be present in. Like how is that MALadaptive? And like, none of them ever considered that maybe I was still going through trauma now. It was always just that this was a thing my brain did that was bad and needed to be stopped, despite the fact that through all this time dissociation is and has literally kept me alive
i’ve been thinking a lot about this recently! i’ve found that watching criminal minds (ignoring all the propaganda) helps with my anxiety, because it gives me another explanation for all the fear sensations in my body. sometimes up-regulating through the emotion works. <3
Really like this! Funnily enough the only movies I can watch are those really badly made shark movies (like think jaws but even more ridiculous). I think maybe it’s that they’re kinda ‘scary’ and gory in a pretty tame way, and also pretty predicable and just way too ridiculous to actually be scary in an uncomfortable way
I’ve also actually been thinking a lot about the term ‘maladaptive’ lately. Professionals have specifically used this to refer to my very extreme dissociative experiences which always seemed really weird to me. Like the whole point of dissociation is my brain and body protecting me from experiences that are too painful to be present in. Like how is that MALadaptive? And like, none of them ever considered that maybe I was still going through trauma now. It was always just that this was a thing my brain did that was bad and needed to be stopped, despite the fact that through all this time dissociation is and has literally kept me alive
totally agree. everything is adaptive!!
we love to complete the stress response cycle!
i’ve been thinking a lot about this recently! i’ve found that watching criminal minds (ignoring all the propaganda) helps with my anxiety, because it gives me another explanation for all the fear sensations in my body. sometimes up-regulating through the emotion works. <3
Thank you, that was truly enlightening and very well written. 🙏