InterruptReQuest

According to what I've read, the reason we get addicted to things is because we are trying to distract ourselves from our unsolved problems. It makes us feel better for a while. We often avoid our unsolved problems because we don't know how to resolve them. Most people don't, because this is something we are not taught.

Well at least as far as I know, I don't resist them consciously. Otherwise I probably wouldn't want to do this, because I know that I need to deal with the emotions. I did try breathwork few times and I remember getting a tingling/numb feeling (similar feeling to your arm falling asleep for example) in several parts of my body, but I don't know if that is linked to emotional numbness itself or if it's something that happens when doing breathwork. I have heard others getting that too, but I don't ever recall it begin linked to emotional numbness. I have also heard someone say that emotional numbness in itself is sort of feeling, but I'm not sure if that feeling is the same kind I mentioned above.

I've been trying to go through some past events that I didn't fully deal with, but it proves to be almost impossible because I can't feel the emotions that are associated with those events. I rarely feel anything, which leads me to believe I might be emotionally numb. According to my understanding, it's purpose is to protect you from emotional pain, but I don't think it's serving me anymore because I'm no longer living in the same environment as I used to. Does anyone have any experience with emotional numbness and how to deal with it?

Sure, but still wanting to find ways to speed up the process, even if just a little, is worth it

I recently discovered that my depression is most likely caused by bullying I had to endure as a child. I was suggested therapy, but I was told that it can take several years to fully heal through that method. Are there any exercises or techniques I can do on my own along with regular therapy to hopefully heal faster? I'm already fed up begin as I am currently, so any help will be appreciated!

Could be. I wonder if I'd be able to release the trauma when that happens. Not sure if just observing is enough. I do know of self inquiry as a concept.

I wouldn't call it becoming aware of the tension (although I've had those too). More like my brain just decides to tense some muscle(s) really hard for a moment. It is a different feeling. I do regular focusing on breathing meditation and sometimes guided ones if I feel like it.

I've noticed during these past few days that when I meditate that certain muscles in my body want to tense up. Like, if you were to intentionally tense your biceps (or any muscle really) as much as you can for a moment (maybe around 10-25 seconds at at time) and then relax them, but my body does this sort of automatically. Is this normal to happen during meditation and what does it mean?

First off, I want to say that I'm not 100% sure if 'aggression' is the right word here, because there is a lot of contradicting descriptions for what it is. The description is more important than what word I use here. I found a page about aggression on a mental health website (not available in English) that explained why aggression is needed (a rough translation): I heard something similar also in some shadow work related content. A lot of the benefits described in the quote are either partially or fully lacking in my life, so I was wondering how should I start to reimplement this in my life again? I guess you could view reimplementing aggression as taking one's power back. I know that the problem in my case is repression, but I'm not sure about the effective methods for for "undoing" the repression. I do have a faint memory of what could be the source of the repression (or at least one of the cases that eventually lead to it), which I guess is a good start.

In short, TRE exercises are used to release trauma, stress and tension that are stuck in the body (maybe repressed emotions too). I found these exercises about a week ago and I have noticed overall less muscle tension and more flexibility in result. I think this is by far the best way to release these stuck "energies" (at least for me it is). However I'm not sure if these exercises actually can heal the source or if it just releases what already has built up. Has anyone here tried these exercises? I'd like to hear other people's experiences with these exercises too.

That's true, but it's easier said than done. I know "logically" that I shouldn't care, but getting the message down to the subconscious level is something that I haven't managed to do (can you even do that?). I don't know if you can truly not care unless you manage to do that.

I just discovered that the fear I have been feeling might actually be coming from success, not failure. Long story short, several months ago I heard of a term "fear of your own potential". Back then I didn't think much of it, but today it popped back in to my mind as a result of other things I was thinking about. So I decided to actually read what it was about and I realized that people that fear success often don't consciously know it and often appears as procrastination and fear of failure. I think I'll do a bit more research into this subject and plan a suitable approach for correcting it.

@Setzer901 I have taken a look at shadow work before and have identified few things (although I don't know if they are related to this issue). I'm still trying to figure out a good way for me to integrate them, though.

I can definitely say that's true for me. I am slightly worried that what I believe to be the thing I want to do in life doesn't work out for one reason or another. Do you have any suggestions on good ways to remove these blocks? I've been doing a guided meditation for this, but I don't know yet how well it works.

There was definitely some useful stuff in the video. I also started looking into releasing repressed negative emotions, which might very likely contribute in this problem I have. I just have to find a way for releasing them that works for me.