I think learning to be okay with being uncomfortable, esp w discomfort caused by fear, in whatever form, is p much everyone’s biggest struggle.
Personally I feel like the exact opposite
Yeah? Like, learning to be comfortable with fear? Because I also think that, I guess I feel like being okay with discomfort around fear is the first step toward being comfortable with t, and with change, but like wanting to avoid discomfort and bad feelings is a big problem, at least for me and other people I know?
I guess like at this point in my life I’m trying to reinforce that it’s okay for me to be comfortable. I think fear became so normalized for me that it’s my default to run through these pre-programmed responses to manage it. Like I react amazingly under pressure. The kind of dangerous/frightening/uncomfortable situations that make other people freeze up cause me to spring into immediate action and confront them head on. But then I find myself gearing up for battle in response to pretty much everything and then having to take a step back and be like, “Wait, this isn’t a fight for my life. This is some little bullshit I could walk away from and I deserve to do that for my own comfort.”
I’ve been reading lately about C-PTSD and it makes a lot of sense. Like the typical PTSD reaction is to freeze up or panic in response to triggers. But C-PTSD, more often caused by living in an environment of constant trauma rather than a singular event, seems to often lead to an opposite reaction because you’re so conditioned to managing it. I think it’s rooted in changes to the fight-or-flight system in the amygdala. So I’m highly functional in the worst type of situations, but constantly having that hormonal response when it’s NOT at all necessary is destroying me in the long term. Physically even.
I have a mix of these reactions… it really depends on what’s going on, I often spring into action and then freeze immediately upon finishing because the fear doesn’t go away.
Thoughts From The Peacock Angel 