Not Wanting to Feel - Why? Where does that come from?

There must be times when you just don't want to feel the sadness of loss, or the fear of being alone. We all don't want to feel certain things at certain times. But when you don't want to feel anything in order to survive, it usually stems from being overwhelmed with intense and threatening emotions when you were an infant.

Your nervous system and psyche shut down to protect you, but unfortunately the emotions still exist - coming out in a different way.

In this video I talk to you about the purpose of not wanting to feel, it's origins and what keeps it going. It's the story of Ian, the character in my book, Ian: From Feeling Unwanted to Wanting to Feel: Trapped by the burden of being perfect. His experience of feeling unwanted was so unbearable that he stopped feeling until he was threatened with losing his wife and kids. Then he worked in therapy to understand his fear of feeling, and was able to connect better.

copyright, Jeanette Raymond, Ph.D. 2022