I'm assuming this is as an adult, and not ABA/biomed etc stuff we were subjected to as kids. I tried some group therapy a few times and the "how does it make you *feel*"? thing never had lasting effects on the root problems. Also tried different meds and none of them really worked on the root issues, either. Though I did recognize, through therapy, that my family was toxic. The one thing that's helped me a bit is NLP, neurolinguistic programming. I know it's generally considered to be B.S. but hey, if it seems to help why knock it?
NLP and hypnosis, when you do them with your very close friends, are so good for people like us. They help us to understand ourselves which is lacking for those of us with alexithymia.
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Another thing that's helped a bit is getting involved in various communities. I'm not talking about anime club. Something passionate and personal, like a feminist consciousness raising, protest actions like Occupy, or even a religious revival if you believe in a deity. If I were a guy, I would join the Freemasons or something because the use of dramatic ritual is probably good for us.
Being in the feminist and social justice scenes helped me to give voice to things I didn't even have words for, like the idea that gender is a construct or that disability rights is a thing. That really spun me around and knocked me out of the 'shell'. I was able to discuss my issues with a supportive group of people and learn how to be social. So I actually learned those skills and seem more 'normal', with people who were trying to step away from being 'normal'. Ironic huh?
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24 Oct 2012, 11:31 am
