Emotions Returning

Since increasing my AD my emotions have mostly returned. I’ve felt pleasure from conversation, I’ve felt angry and excited.

Before this I felt my emotions were gone due to psychotic negative symptoms.

I hope that this is a sign of recovery and that things will improve further.

Although it makes relapse and deterioration an even worse prospect.
If I could win my family back I would be so happy, it’s very unlikely though as she no longer loves me.

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That’s great news! I found it really painful getting them back and learning how to process them properly. It’s worth it though.

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Thank you very much, there not as strong as before but there definitely there. How did you get yours back?

I went on a support forum similar to this one and they helped me figure things out. I started with anger because it was easiest to recognise. I attended a CBT course and watched lots of videos, and I just practiced until I was comfortable tolerating anger.

After that, emotions started to reappear so long as I was able to recognise them and willing to tolerate them. The most important thing was that I had to stop avoiding negative feelings, which meant giving up most of my addictions, especially alcohol.

I’m still not fully restored but getting there.

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That’s really good to hear

So do you mean you concentrated on being able to feel anger and then felt it?

Or do you mean your emotions came back and you learned to manage them?

Both actually. With anger I learned the physical sensations that meant I was feeling angry: Tensing muscles, redness, gritted teeth, head pain, etc.

With the others I had lots of “aha” moments when I realised I was feeling something and labelled it as sadness, or jealousy, etc. And I noticed then my body sensations too. Over time I got better and better at it. Another good source of recovery was my memories of feeling intensely from my teenage years, and I did have several flashbacks that released feelings I had suppressed.

Really once you have the intention to value your emotions then they will come back naturally. All you have to do is not avoid them.

I understand you now and thank you very much.

Until your emotions are taken away, you can’t really understand how important they really are. They’re what makes us human!

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This is awesome, I’m happy for you that things are improving.

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Thank you very much.

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