Limits of coping strategies
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Ignoring painful feelings may reduce one's conscious experience of them.
But it also prevents one from learning how to manage them in smaller doses,
let alone larger ones - which makes one vulnerable to alternating between
feeling little or no emotions and being overwhelmed and unable to cope
with them.
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Avoiding getting close to people and trying to hide all of one's pain and
vulnerabilities may creating a sense of safety. But this approach to relationships
leads to a great deal of loneliness, prevents experiences and learning
about developing true intimacy and trust, and makes one vulnerable to desperately
and naively putting trust in the wrong people and being betrayed again.
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At the extreme, getting really drunk can block out painful memories and
feelings, including the feeling of being disconnected from others - but
cause lots of other problems and disconnections from people.
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