Repressing emotions??

How do realize or know if you are repressing emotions? Someone on here said their therapist taught them how to realize they are doing so. At times I think I may be guilty of this, but honestly don't know how to go about fixing this, and can't afford a therapist.

Thanks!

E. Lynn

 

Hello E. Lynn and welcome to the forum,

That is an excellent question. I have certainly found that repressed emotions, such as anger, are a direct cause of my physical pain. What has helped me is the structured education program on the tms wiki website. It helped me learn about tms and taught me to journal so that I could better understand myself and how I was repressing my emotions. Plus, it's free. I can't afford therapy either, so that was a real blessing for me.

I'm still working on becoming pain free. Sometimes it can take a while because there are many layers of repressed feelings. It's important not to get discouraged and to get back to your normal life as soon as possible. For me this meant returning to the gym 3 times a week and going back to work full time (which I'm working on now).

Best of luck on your journey!
This forum is a wonderful source of support.
Regards,
Blake

 

Sounds like a great question for Ask a TMS Therapist. It's free!
http://www.tmswiki.org/forum/forums/ask-a-tms-therapist.47/

 

Everybody has repressed emotions. We are emotional beings. It's the very emotional conflict within us that drives us to do great things, or bad things--anything(s).

If you dig deep enough you may uproot and old tear from someone you loved that is momentarily gone (from your awareness). The body is a storehouse for our lives. Of course it takes a thought to evoke a memory, and to pull it to consciousness, and create the emotion (neurotransmitter).

The process is ~~> thought ~~> neuropeptide chain into bloodstream (or brain) ~~> to matching receptor cell ~~> creating emotion.

So our emotions begin with a thought. This is why it's so important to get to your thinking process in TMS. Redundant thinking produces the redundant physical experience of emotion. That means, if you keep sending the same inaccurate conscious and unconscious signals to your body, you will keep TMSing. Healing requires accurate thinking, a reversal of awareness. The truth sets you free.

But if I understand this question correctly (I get the same question often) the answer is, if you have symptoms then you're repressing emotions, yes. If you're 'momentarily' free of symptoms, there are still emotions potential from past memory but they aren't being triggered within the unconscious through the thought process (or the sensory process.) Emotions can be uprooted through the senses too, by reminding the brain of old memory. Smell is the deeper sense that will take you back in time faster and farther than anything, most likely as a survival means, food, sex, etc. I've seen people triggered into pain by senses of color, sex, smells, pollens, food, insects, music, mommy, geographic areas, flashing light, buzzing, etc...etc. One lady had her pain triggered by my book. When she thought of it she went into deep spasm.

Everyone has repressed memories that can be triggered to create an emotion. If you have pain now your unconsciously looping those memories, and your emotions are trying to enter your consciousness where they desire to be known to you, but cannot for reasons of shame and guilt. Superego won't allow you to know they exist, but also of their magnitude. So your body is expressing what you don't know exists, or can't express verbally.

Steve

 

Steve's right. Long-held repressed emotions can surface by being triggered by things that happen now.

I began having severe back pain when my best friends divorced, and I had felt like part of their family.
I didn't realize until I journaled about the divorce that it triggered repressed anger from my parents' divorcing
when I was 7 years old.

So dig up those repressed emotions and your subconscious will stop the pain.

 

Yes, my friend Walt, that's the McKenzie Two-Trauma Mechanism. The current trauma only reflects and reminds us of the first trauma, all the way back to birth (first trauma).

 

Thanks so much Blake, yb, Steve and Walt. I see where you're coming from. I've been thinking for several months now, searching for anything I could have repressed. I think a lot of what I am dealing with now is pain revolving around events from the past ten years or so, and fear of that pain. Man is it tough to break the loops in the brain. Almost every day I wake up with the same panicky feeling and my tinnitus gets louder, but I don't have anything to be panicky about! I tell myself to quit and how silly it is, but it's like it's stuck in my brain like a broken record. I've tried trying to force myself to think of something else, but that didn't work. Today, I tried to just letting it pass and not worry about it. The panicky feeling only last for a couple of minutes, but the tinnitus drones on and on all the time. It actually started from my neighbor constantly waking me up with loud machinery for months on end. Made me mad. Now, he finally wore himself out and doesn't do that very much any more and yet the tinnitus has found a happy home and doesn't want to leave

Steve, when you mentioned smell could bring back memories it made me think of how not too long ago I was on the deodorant aisle trying to find one my daughter liked and I happened to sniff the one I used in middle school gym class. That was like 26 years ago and still actually make it! Brought a bunch of memories back of how I disliked boring gym class

Walt, just curious, how long did your severe back pain last after your friend got divorced? Divorce is so tough.

E. Lynn

 

And Blake, thanks for pointing out the structured program. I hadn't noticed that yet. Off to check it out.

 

Just a great response, Steve. A very clear explanation of the TMS process. Thanks.