Contained Emotions

Sometimes {still} I feel like there is no way out. I have emotions inside. I have feelings. And when my feelings get hurt, I don’t know how to express them. In fact, I would rather die than have other people know that I am hurt by something someone did or said.

In class this week, our professor, who is also a practicing clinical psychologist, demonstrated different methods of psychological assessment. In one assessment, she asked us to draw a house, a tree, and a person – all on separate sheets of paper. She took them home and gave us back today an {unofficial} assessment. Here is my person and what she noted:

1. take life too seriously, 2. contained emotions, and 3. critical of self?

Note the tight lips - the hands tucked into pockets, out of sight - and the pockets underscored hard with the pencil.

Somehow, I have no qualms about sharing with the world {online and in 3-D life} about how I'm an alcoholic in recovery who has experienced anxiety disorder and major depression, but I would {almost literally} rather die than expose to another person that they have hurt my feelings. I just don't know if this is something I am going to be able to get over.