Does reading BB make you feel worse.

[[Je...]]

Sometimes it does me.    I read something scary and I feel like it's pretty hopeless.

If someone posts something uplifting, that might help, but I'm finding staying off the site

makes me feel better...  some days.

[[Ch...]]

Everyone needs a break, Jerry.  I have to take them sometimes, too, and I'm pretty much healed.

 

[[be...]]

No, it as never made me feel worse, even when I was in the height of my cold turkey withdrawal.It was instead a real positive as it was the best distraction I could ever imagine. It was literally my savior.

[[Je...]]

How could you even read in the middle of CT Withdrawal?

[Guest [in...]]

I sometimes glance over posts and feel really sad for the suffering I read about. But there are plenty of BBs that I can reach out to and joke with, swap funny stories, positive stories...there are some really strong people on here, and I search them out. 

[[ru...]]

Jerry, I just asked the same question yesterday in a different forum. Yes, I can get triggered if I read something that seems scary to me. It's just that we are kinda sensitive to so many things, reading included. Just skip over post's that make you feel uncomfortable 

 

Ruger

[[dr...]]

I mostly stay on threads I know won't freak me out.  Every time I go to the protracted section I freak myself out.  I now just take it as each day comes and avoid posts I know can be mentally damaging/taxing to me.

[[Je...]]

I mostly stay on threads I know won't freak me out.  Every time I go to the protracted section I freak myself out.  I now just take it as each day comes and avoid posts I know can be mentally damaging/taxing to me.

 

Exactly, stay away from the scary threads...I h ave to.

[[Ve...]]

I mostly stay on threads I know won't freak me out.  Every time I go to the protracted section I freak myself out.  I now just take it as each day comes and avoid posts I know can be mentally damaging/taxing to me.

Exactly, stay away from the scary threads...I have to.

I sure hear ya, Jerry, Drew, Ruger! I used to feel obligated to read as many posts as I could, but now I know that was not caring for my own well-being, I was torturing myself trying to absorb that much of this dark matter. I'm a little too empathetic (I take on or identify with others' suffering as if it were my own) and it made me focus way too much on my own withdrawal and symptoms, when I needed to focus on other unrelated things to healthily distract me from myself.

 

As the old saying goes: "One person's meat is another person's poison." [i made it non-sexist.] Some of us do have to be ready to immediately logout and step away from the computer when we feel that we're at "critical mass" and about to blow, freak out, or get really depressed, thus risking a relapse.

 

I just kinda float around the forum looking for intriguing post titles and read only a few, and reply if it's something that I know something about. I sometimes seek out helpful material by using the search feature. Then I make myself get up and try to rejoin real life, despite my current maddening dissociative problem due to my withdrawal.

[[be...]]

I have learned just to let them bounce off me. I learned this method many many years ago, because, as a journalist, so many people say bad things about you, so eventually, I just put up a sort of automatic shield. When I get really down, I just shut my BB off for a few days. And listen to my favorite bands on YouTube.

[[Fr...]]

Yes. I just read a scary one in protracted withdrawal. There's no reason to assume the worst. Never. I agree with many here … We are a sensitive lot. We each have our own journeys and our triggers, and so it's best to avoid yours. If possible. If not, just feel what good feelings you can and stay in that place.

[[va...]]

No, it as never made me feel worse, even when I was in the height of my cold turkey withdrawal.It was instead a real positive as it was the best distraction I could ever imagine. It was literally my savior.

 

Me either, and me too.    I love this place.    I don't read every thread though.  I have a few regular ones I visit, and I occasionally will read a few other ones.  I don't spend hours and hours here though, and I don't always check in every day because I don't always turn my computer on.  But this place is SO much more positive than some of the facebook groups I go to.  Although, I do get positive stuff from them as well.

 

In fact, some of us got a spanking recently in one of the xanax threads here for being TOO positive.  I was all, like, "what?" 

 

I sometimes glance over posts and feel really sad for the suffering I read about. But there are plenty of BBs that I can reach out to and joke with, swap funny stories, positive stories...there are some really strong people on here, and I search them out. 

 

This is what I do as well.  And, I believe deeply in the power of thought, and perspective, and how having a negative attitude can actually draw negative things to you.  IOW, if you stay in fear all the time and obsess about what *might* happen, then you are sure to bring it to you.  Does that make sense?

 

Namaste.

 

~K   

[[Te...]]

Yep, suggestibility is big with me, but i find the forums(should that actually be 'fora' or 'fori'?) provide a chance to focus on someone else's quandary and slip away from mine. I honestly have enough of my own, so borrowing someone else's is a good dis associative distraction, and I don't feel obligated to own it Jumping into someone's problem(s) is a great tool for getting away from yours. I could be wrong, I often am, but I don't think so this time...