Dear Mandalina:

About the confusion- not a problem, nothing to apologize for: here, you are allowed to be confused if and whenever you are confused.

“I am better from an emotional point of view now, much better than I was when I wrote in my thread… I made peace with lots of the issues exposed there“- it shows.

“Me and my boyfriend did a lot of individual work as well as therapy and we started seeing results in our relationship“- good to read this!

Of course others issues arose.. It is a work in progress“- issues always arise and emotional healing is indeed a continuous, progressive process, it never ends and it is never complete.

“I have all the information I read the books and know the theory, in practice I still need to work on it“- exactly, emotional healing can start in theory but it has no practical value unless it’s… done in practice.

“You asked if I gained some emotional regulation skills. I did for some time… but I understand it is a daily practice“- emotion regulation is part of emotional health and it needs to be a daily practice: not a perfect-all-day practice, just a bit here and there, every day.

The key to emotion regulation is to not rush anything, to not go to extremes (all or nothing), to not expect perfection, but instead- to practice with a gentle, patient attitude and in moderation.

“The pandemic is over and we started seeing friends… getting back on social life meant also to open the door to social anxiety.. my IBS is more powerful now“- I remember when the pandemic started and people were isolated- lots of people’s anxiety improved for the reason you pointed to: less social interactions=> less social anxiety.

“Thank you for being here..“- you are welcome and thank you for being gracious and for being here!

anita