There is a whole spectrum of feelings that one cannot afford to experience in the midst of crisis, in the midst of abuse, in the midst of moral injury.

It is only when we begin to suspect we are safe enough that we can afford to experience the worst of the rage, pain, sorrow.
That is why post traumatic responses can feel so delayed, so extreme, so disproportionate to the present.

We can only afford to feel our vulnerability when we are in a safe enough environment to fall apart.
Also: self-preserving rage - that has been made impotent and has subsequently had to be repressed over the past four years is swelling up for many people today, who find themselves not only relieved, but "released" or in a way that can be irritable or overstimulating.
People may feel enraged, giddy, exhausted, frightened, agitated, overwhelmed, as well as relieved.
We also have to remember that the danger has not passed.

There is no telling what kind of chaos is in store over the next 10 weeks or so.

This is only a glimpse of some light at the end of the tunnel.

There are feelings that are activated about that reality too.
We like to have simple, solitary, sequential feelings - one clean discrete feeling at a time - but that requires that our more complex and ambivalent/mixed responses are split off.

The truth is we almost always feel many and contradictory feelings all at once
and days like today lift our defenses and the whole internal contradictory chorus hollers all together.
Just remember how much GRIEF has been erased, how many funerals have been forestalled, how many people died while Trump and his cronies said that none of it was real.

All that is released from the depths when that single psychological abuse alone is lifted.
we are going to be feeling A WHOLE LOT for a WHILE.
Therapists regularly see clients begin to sob when we simply indicate that we think the abuse they experienced was real.

x 74,041,691 Biden voters
https://twitter.com/shrinkthinks/status/1325193110884814849?s=20
Going to mute this thread loves, before the trolls and bots arrive.

Be safe. Be kind. Be brave.
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