Dear Christy Lim:

I am not sure what you meant by “Do you mind share about what makes you here in this web or forum”- if you mean, what motivates me to post as much and as often as I do, I will give you an example of this very moment. Your post above brings to my attention, this very morning as I sit here, typing this, how difficult and unpleasant it is to feel anxious, how very uncomfortable. So uncomfortable that we want to never feel this, never again. And when we do feel it again, we think something like: not again! No, I don’t want this!

Correct? And I am reminded of a post I read a few days ago about the concept of “distress tolerance”- very anxious people have low distress tolerance. It means that I have believed throughout my anxious living, that I am not able to endure anxiety, distress, discomfort. It is sort of … fear of feeling fearful, fear of feeling distress, discomfort… as if we can’t handle it, as if it will destroy us.

Low distress tolerance involves believing we are unable to survive feeling badly. This is why feeling badly feels … extra bad.

What do you think about this concept?

anita