Tag Archives: anger

What’s My Name Again?

Posted on October 24, 2010 | 4 comments

I currently volunteer at the public library’s adult literacy program, Project Read. It’s very satisfying, and it gets me out of the apartment.

I started the program last November, and after going through training, I was assigned someone–let’s call him Mr. C–in January. So I’ve been working with him for almost ten months. For the first six months or so we met once a week for about two hours a session; and for the past 4 months we’ve been meeting twice a month, two hours each.

Anyway, things have been going well, until our meeting earlier this week, that is. We met, as usual. Started chatting, as usual. Baseball, weather, public transit, that sort of thing. Then the conversation drifted toward smart phones, and Mr. C mentioned that he just purchased one. I asked if he got a new number and he said yes, and then I asked for it and he gave it to me, and then he asked for mine, and as he was putting my number in his phone, he asked–

“What’s your name again? Mike, right?”

I froze. For the most part, I don’t get much anxiety around him. We’ve been meeting regularly for so long, I’ve been able to open up (somewhat). I think things can be very awkward between us, though. I don’t really know what I’m doing, and I believe he can see this lack of confidence, but other than that, I feel relaxed around him. Because of this, I said exactly what was on my mind, without filtering it first–

“We’ve been meeting since January and you don’t know my name by now,” I said. This came out in a very harsh tone. I was pissed. “It’s Mike.”

I had to go to the bathroom to cool off. When I got back, I started editing his writing. We just moved on.

In retrospect, I’m angry at myself. I’m angry because I allowed my emotions to get the best of me. It’s not about him–it’s about me. There could be any number of reasons why he didn’t remember my name. Maybe he was trying to clarify whether I go by Mike or Michael. Maybe he has anxiety issues too and maybe he was flooded with anxiety when we met. I know I often don’t listen as well when I’m flooded. Whatever the reason, it doesn’t matter. I’m angry at myself.

But I should be happy because I was able to be present and say what was on my mind without judgment and scrutiny, but–and there’s always a but–I still wish I could have been a little easier on Mr. C–and myself.

Yet another example of my perfectionism.

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therapy, 9-28-10

Posted on September 30, 2010 | Leave a comment

Well, therapy this week continued right where we left off last Tuesday.

It was like I never left …

Last week I ended with- “Well, now I feel like I can’t bring anger into the room, which makes me angry.” And this week I began with- “I’m angry.”

I explained to Mr. J., my therapist, that I felt hurt because he didn’t listen to me last week. In our previous session, he made me angry because he changed the subject while I was in the middle of dealing with some difficult feelings, and he concluded that anger arose because the session was difficult for me–because I was trying to avoid something, in other words. I tried to explain that my anger was just anger but he didn’t listen.

He immediately apologized for not listening (which seemed sincere). I felt a lot better, and we moved on.

It’s interesting (and ironic, I guess) that I started going to therapy to get help with my relationships, and yet in the beginning of our session yesterday, we had to work on our relationship. A part of me thinks that was just a waste of time, but another part thinks that it’s great those feelings came up because my relationship with my therapist is a microcosm of how I view the world.

Once I become content with myself in therapy, and with our relationship, those feelings should extend to all my relationships.

***

Afterward, I told J. about my weekend (see the camping post, if interested), and we chose to look deeper at what’s behind my desire to keep my girlfriend away from my friends.

I’m very uncomfortable with my girlfriend connecting (or cathecting, as J. put it) with my friends, because in a past relationship my girlfriend “stole” one of my friends after we broke up–that is, for whatever reason, my friend stopped being friends with me (who I was friends with first) but kept hanging out with my ex. So I’m afraid this will happen again, and so my solution is to keep my girlfriend away from my friends, which is hard for me to do because she’s my “safe” person, so she ends up hanging out with most of my friends, and because she’s fun and outgoing and interesting (and I’m not) this makes me very uncomfortable (did I say that already?).

Why would so and so want to be friends with me when they can be friends with her–someone infinitely more interesting?

What’s more, I don’t have very many friends, and so I’m very protective of the ones I have, and I keep them at a distance because I’m afraid if they get too close, they’ll see the real me and then run the other way. Because of this I don’t have true relationships with them, and the relationships are very fragile.

“I don’t understand this behavior,” I told J. “I really want real friendships; I don’t like having to cling to my girlfriend all the time, but I just can’t seem to let my guard down. What can I do?”

“It’s simple,” he said. “Develop a relationship with yourself. Relationships come and go; the only constant is your relationship with yourself.”

If I can develop an inner relationships (sounds easy, right?) I will have stability in life no matter what comes my way, and the real me will open up. My friends will see this and will connect more with me.

Okay, sounds great. How do I do that?

“You’re doing it right now,” J. said. “We’re doing it together, you and I. I give you the space to be yourself–the real you, whatever that may be in the moment–in here, while you slowly open up to yourself. It’s a lifetime of work, but it’s necessary because you can’t have happiness and joy in your life if you don’t have affinity for yourself.”

“That’s too abstract,” I said. “It has no practical meaning for me now, in
the present. I don’t know what to do”

“You’re doing it.”

We sat in silence for some time.

“I know that you feel vulnerable and exposed in here,” he said breaking the silence, “but all I really see is a man trying to develop a relationship with himself. That’s all.”

“I feel like I’m twelve years old,” I said.

“You feel like you need someone to look up to and to take care of you?”

Yes. And I didn’t have anybody there–emotionally speaking–when I was twelve, but I do now–I have myself.

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Posted in friends, interventions, past, social anxiety, spirituality, therapy

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therapy, 9/21/10

Posted on September 23, 2010 | 2 comments

Therapy on Tuesday brought up a lot of anger. The session began with me explaining some negative feelings I have toward my mom. We hashed that out for a while, and then my therapist, Mr. J, changed the subject to my blog. (If you don’t already know, I printed out my first post of this blog and gave it to him. On the bottom of the post there’s information about the blog, and I forgot to remove it when I printed it.) Anyway, he went on and on about how it’s important not to disclose stuff that happens between us to anyone, as it diminishes the experience. I agree with that. I think that if I posted something specific and asked you to analyze it, I would hurt my therapy experience. On the other hand, I think it’s good for me to share what’s happening because it helps me integrate my experience. He concluded by saying “I just want you to be mindful. That’s all.” Very cryptic.

Afterward, and after a long silence, I told him I felt angry because he changed the subject.: “Whenever I’m in the middle of my feelings and change the subject to something intellectual, you point it out, remind me that therapy is hard, and then kindly ask me to return to my feelings. However, when you change the subject, it’s okay. You have all the control and all the power in this relationship.”

He then tried to cleverly point out that my anger is just a defense mechanism. In other words, I use anger to avoid dealing with my feelings. This made me even angrier. I understand his point, but does that apply to every situation–to every time I’m angry? Is anger ever just what it is–anger? I think he made a mistake (by changing the subject) and then he tried to cover up for it by hiding behind my anger. Now I feel like I can’t bring anger into the room because now whenever I do, he’ll just say it’s a defense mechanism.

It’s not okay anymore for me to just feel angry.

Sometimes he spins me around so much in one direction, while my anxiety spins me around in an entirely different direction … by the time the sessions ends, I don’t know what to believe.

Also, not all behavior needs to be analyzed, even in therapy. I think sometimes things are what they are; there’s nothing underneath. I feel like half the session was a waste because we tried to go deeper when there wasn’t anything deeper. I guess I understand that it’s good that what happened happened, so we could uncover something about our relationship. But I don’t know where to go with it? I feel like if I bring this up in therapy, he’ll just use the same argument: that it’s a defense mechanism. Or he’ll just try to appease me by saying stuff like “I appreciate that” or “I understand that therapy is hard sometimes.”

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