@Birdofparadise8 wrote:
When you say primary adult caregivers, do you mean my parents the adults at school or both?
Both - basically the adults who had any sort of say in your sense of safety, i.e. the people at school that failed to act, and the ways your parents failed to respond to you when you expressed your needs.
Yes, I really don't know how to flip the switch.
But that's my point - it's not a switch to be flipped, it's a process to pursue by building habits around purposefully practicing self-care, self-compassion, self-awareness, and self-expression.
"I am alive so I have needs, and it is okay for me to take up space in this world, and seek for those needs to be met".
You say this, but right now, I really don't believe it.
That's okay, neither did I when I first started out. Thankfully, humans really are in many ways just silly little apes - if we hear something enough, we start to believe it. That's why mantras and affirmations can be so helpful - the power lies in repetition as much as in the words themselves.
Things are going downhill. I'm not okay.
It's evening, so it makes sense that your body is following its habitual routine. Maybe a good time to try some affirmations, like "I know that my mood tends to shift in the evenings, but it's gonna be okay. It doesn't mean I'll feel this way forever, and I know I will feel better in the morning." Or something else more meaningful to you 💜
And you're very welcome, I consider it a privilege to be able to share my experiences with you and anyone else reading along.
