MistressDarkArt -> RE: Freaked out (2/12/2012 11:46:23 PM)
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You're welcome, dear. After being on this earth for a long time, I can safely say "trust your gut". The moment something feels wrong, put a stop to it immediately until you can step back and evaluate. And if, despite your best intentions, you find yourself in the middle of something that's gone too far, it's OK to tell someone, "I can't continue. I'll talk with you later when I've had a chance to process what's happened here." Or, if it's a situation where you don't feel as though you owe anyone an explanation, "I need you to stop. Now." Practice in your mirror. Repeat until you look and sound like you mean it. What person hasn't looked back on a situation saying, "I should have said this. I should have done that."? When encountering certain highly-charged situations, many people temporarily experience what I call 'brain freeze'. In that moment your mind shuts off and you either become physically immobilized or your body continues on auto-pilot. This happened to me in a situation where I wasn't able to verbally de-escalate a crazy person in my house even though I knew full-well how to do it and what I should have said given the circumstances. I simply couldn't reconcile the acquaintance I thought I knew and this creepy headcase in the same body. I was so stunned I became speechless, and it turned into a physical attack. Fortunately, my body remembered how to defend me and let's just say...me: +1, him: big fat fooking zero plus endless legal humiliation and drama. It's easy to admonish others about what they coulda shoulda woulda done. But as I found out first-hand, until it happens to you, yourself, all that goes out the window and you just do the best you can using what you have available at the time. It's normal to look back on the circumstance and pick apart every detail over and over again...to feel stupid...to blame yourself...to feel hurt, betrayed and angry that it played out the way it did. But don't linger here too long or you'll destroy yourself. Acknowledge the lesson and move forward. You'll be fine.
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