It Ruined My Future and Everything That I Had

Nobody65

Member
I originally posted this in another thread but it was originally supposed to be a response to another's comment. Two hours later I realized that I needed to vent, and not wanting to take away from the op's support, I am posting this here:

Hey man. I feel for you. I was victimized at about 5th through 8th grade, when my OCD developed and singled me out. It was vicious and it made my life hell. I was too ashamed to talk about it and though my parents asked me if I was okay, they never pressed hard enough to get me to talk, and the only time I was emotional enough to talk, after an argument or something, my father would tell me that I was impossible to talk to and that it was too close to when everyone went to sleep and it would keep him up. So I never did talk. I endured, and I found some few friends in my life. I never felt secure though and it took a friends help for me to find a date to prom. Then, about two years later as I looked back at that night, and various other, less obvious situations, I realized that I had blown it and that there had been girls that I had a shot with, not so many in high school but a couple in college. My problem was that after so much isolation and degradation, I didn't see how anyone could like me. So I was too scared to see what the situation was or act on it until the time had passed.

I did make it out of high school with a great GPA, mainly getting by on my intelligence instead of time spent, and I went to a very good university. Things went alright freshman year and I did good. I was taking science classes, intent on fulfilling my childhood dream of becoming a doctor. I was a little awkward, but I started to do better and by the end of the year I felt like I finally was in a good place in my life. I had made some good friends. Had some good times. I hadn't really connected with any girls but I had rounded a couple bases numerous times as I finished my year with a solid gpa and a new found hope for my life.

I coasted through the summer with a new found confidence my friends at home couldn't believe, and they were happy for me. I was happy for me. I couldn't wait to get back to school...now I wish I never had gone back that year.


I went back to a room full of new people, I had known some and they were good people, except for one. My direct roommate was one of my closest friends from last year. He came back from the summer confident too. He also came back a complete *******. The kid who was friendly, self-concious roommate one year ago, after Losing his virginity to someone most people would rather screw a bear than touch (I'm fine saying that cause she was a complete bitch)...came back and started ragging and making fun of everyone. When I let him know that I didn't like this, he said it was just ball busting and that everyone did it. It was a friend thing. I said the reason I wouldn't do it was because I was a friend. Maybe he saw this was a weakness, IDK, I'll never understand, or forgive, what he did but he started making degrading comments after everything I would say.

He made fun of my accent after almost anything I would say.
He made fun of the way I looked, calling me a holocaust victim, lanky kong, and other names I won't repeat.
He made numerous comments about wanting to see the girl that would fall for me.
He would yell at me over any comment I made, arguing and telling me I was wrong.
I found out that he told my room not to talk to me about sports because I was an annoying ass who was unrealistic about his team. I loved talking about sports, so this was confusing why nobody else would talk to me about them. He would joke around about me with other people and make me self concious in front of them.
I hit him one time when we were drinking and he said crap about my family. He used that as an excuse to continue.


The most devastating thing though, the death blow, the one that put me where I am was worse. After I started confronting him about everything, we got into a yelling match and one of my other roommates, not very bright but hating confrontation stepped in and tried to calm us down. He was impressionable though, and he tried to stop our fight by backing the piece of **** that did this too me. My bully had said that he was giving me a hard time because he was tired of constantly defending me from everyone else. That everyone talked **** and asked what it was like to live with me. That they didn't want me around and that I was awkward.

My other roommate backed him up, saying he always defended me.
When I asked who was taking ****, my bully told me "everyone."

To think that everyone hated me. To think that I had thought I was doing so well when I really had nothing. To be thrown back into that feeling of being alone and having nobody to turn to. That is the night I died. I'm still here today, but this is not who I am or what I should be.

I tried to do what I had done before, retreating from the world and concentrating on school...but I was in so much pain and my concentration, thus my grades began to slip. I stopped trying to get to know the new people I had met that year, not knowing if they were against me as well. There was only one friend I still trusted, and he was there for me. It just wasn't enough.

The kid wasn't content though, he used my new situation to ridicule me and grow more vicious than he ever had, knowing I felt alone and wouldn't tell the people I thought hated me. He told me things on numerous occassions drunk and sober such as:

"You don't deserve to ever get laid again" The pinnacle of life in his eyes
"You don't ever deserve to be happy"
"You think you have it bad mother------. Try being 260 lbs and not being able to getlaid, that's what I dealt with growing up"
"why don't you just kill yourself"


If you hear things like that so often for long enough, you begin to believe them. I had nothing to make me think otherwise and n
o will to fight back anymore.

Then a funny thing happened. He saw what he had done to me and actually felt bad. He broke down crying on numerous occasions asking me not to transfer as I had planned to. He apologized and stopped everything. He cried and told me about his problems, basically not sleeping with a girl accross the hall so he could throw her away like garbage. I didn't feel bad about his situation at all, but I did what I had always thought to be right and tried to make the stupid ****ed up loser feel better. I did stay, and I did make friends with the girls accross the hall and some other people. But I never really recovered.

I found out next year that what he had told me was a lie. One person had said something about me being socially awkward while my other roommate was around. That was who "everyone" was.
The next year I got him to tell me who, and that person had no room to talk.


When you're that depressed and think that nobody likes you, you act like it. You grow self concious, quiet and stop talking to people.



But I am considered awkward and a loser here now. I am a social lepper. I haven't had a girlfriend here or even come close. I grew more and more depressed as my grades slipped and medical school is no longer an option, as well as any other thing I would have accepted. I feel isolated from people that I can reason are my friends, but he emotional component is not there. I am self-concious, I don't see how anyone could ever like me, I get nervous around other people and my heart races and my voice changes when I try to talk. I never have anything to say and when I do I hesitate, still avoiding the long gone ridicule that used to follow my every sentence. I can't concentrate and now I'm taking, and struggling with, easy classes that I am taking merely so I can graduate and leave what has become a 3 year funeral for me. Last summer I realized what I had lost and tried to kill myself using the medication I was on to, (unsuccessfully) help me cope. I was in a coma for a week and now I won't graduate on time. I am struggling even more with decreased brain abilities and no medication to help me. I am simply waiting to die. I won't try to kill myself again, but I go to bed praying every night that I won't wake up.

I have seen everyone grow and succeed here in college. Find relationships, live their lives, set themselves up for a great future. The person responsible is on his way to medical school, my former dream. He gave up drinking to fix his grades and concentrate. Concentrate and work like I had tried to sophmore year. He puts in more effort than I had to to get the type of grades that I had been getting that year before this happened. Nobody hear knows how smart I used to be and how easily things came to me. With the work I put into everything to get by with a 3.0, barely, I would be getting the grades I needed. 15 hours for a C, 20 hours on a paper for a c-. This is my life. I don't do anything other than study for almost all of my free time. I tried to forgive the person who did this too me, and I am a good friend to everyone, including him, but I am in more pain now then I was then. I wish I would have done more, done something different. I know now where this left me. And it would have been more humane to just kill me.

I started crying and being sad all the time. At Disney world, sports games. At anything that reminded me of a happier time. I just wanted to belong and feel loved. I haven't been happy or had a good night's sleep since this happened.

Seeing how this affected me, the kid has slowly began to repress what he did. I've seen this over the last two years. He doesn't remember much of what I see in flashbacks and hear in my mind every day of my life. He doesn't understand that what I dream about almost every night is what happened to me. He doesn't understand why I'm so miserable and how I'm struggling with my easy major. He doesn't think that a little "ball busting" was responsible for ruining everything that I had worked so hard and waited so long to get.
He doesn't get that it just pisses me off when he tries to "motivate" me by saying that I "shouldn't care what other people think," or that "school is the only thing that matters" or that "I should try to be happy, cause when I'm not it weighs on him," or that I should try o act happy at least because it shows on my face so clearly that I'm miserable and upset. He doesn't get that these things make me angry and worse off. His daily ruminations on how "the only people you can trust are your family," "that nobody else gives a **** other than them," that it's a waste of time and demoralizing to hang out with girls "when you don't get anything out of it." I had a realization this year about how this friendship has been the most devastating thing to my well being...not the OCD, depression etc. I just block everything out that he says now, or tell him he's really screwed up...which he clearly is. But that's not my problem,and I don't care about his issues. I only stay civil because we have the same friends an it is easier this way, or at least I thought it would be, and I didn't have the confidence when it mattered to believe that anyone would side with the depressed kid over the funny, closet psycho.He felt bad, he apologized, he hasn't done anything malicious since that time, so I try to forgive, but it's hard...and I know I never should have went down that path. If I could do it again I wouldn't even hesitate to beat the hell out of him...but he's done nothing since then, and I feel, whether it is true or not, that I have no basis to bring this up again. I will struggle with the loses I have endured for the rest of my life and see no end in sight.

For the first time in my life I felt good. I had been happier and better off than I had ever remembered. And I was cut down by one of my closest friends to the point where I have tried to kill myself, my gpa is abysmal, and I struggle with the simplest tasks. I feel completely isolated, I don't feel any connection with the few friends I have left, and I just want to die so the pain will finally stop.
 

Nobody65

Member
It's a really hard thing to live wanting more than anything to change the past, knowing you can't, but unable to let go of it. I don't know how to let go of this. Doctors have told me that I can be happy in the future and have a life. I tell them that I don't see how I can ever put this behind me or make up for it, they tell me that the memories and scars will be there but I can live a fulfilling life.

How can I after I lost so much? I will never get this time or these opportunities back. When I tell them all that matters now is for me to find a way to live a normal life. When I say this they tell me nobody is normal...They know what I freaking mean, and I tell them that. I'm clearly not normal. I just want to fit in, and find a way to make FRIENDS, date, and not have daily interactions treat me weirdly.
 

Aussie_Lad

Well-known member
Your story is very touching. It is not uncommon for people to have vast challenges in their childhood or early adulthood. As long as you have the will to put the past behind you, there is the opportunity for a good future. You may need some help there, have you considered going to a counsellor?
 

Nobody65

Member
Your story is very touching. It is not uncommon for people to have vast challenges in their childhood or early adulthood. As long as you have the will to put the past behind you, there is the opportunity for a good future. You may need some help there, have you considered going to a counsellor?

Have seen 5 psychologists and 2 psychiatrists consistently in the past decade. Many told me they thought they had helped me as much as they could. I'm only seeing a psychiatrist now and looking for a new psychologist.

It's really hard to forget about the past knowing I've missed out on so much. Dating, playing sports like I used to love, hanging out with friends, being happy. It sucks and I don't know how to get over what happened to me at college. I really thought I was turning the corner and this bastard had to destroy everything I worked for. I know I will never forget it and I will never be happy settling in life. I expect to die alone now because I can't date anybody that I'm actually interested in, and it's not fair to the other person if I just settle for someone I don't really want to be with. I fought for over a decade and my grades were the last thing to fall, so I have to settle for everything in terms of a job now, if I am ever able to get to a point where I can function again
 

Pacific_Loner

Pirate from the North Pole
Wow that was so depressing. (I am not saying that for you to feel bad, we all have the right to be depressed and depressing here).
In fact what is most depressing is that you have seen so much specialists and it didn't help you. So it sounds desperate to even try to give you some advice: they probably told you everything that can possibly be said. You really seem to be stuck in a state of hate again this person, and it is ok for a while, but now it seems that with this hate, you are just keeping the negative momentum that he has created long ago. I guess I am not saying anything new but you really need to forgive and stop this chain reaction. I mean you have to get over it somehow... accept that what happened happened, but don't accept that it continues to ruin your life... I guess I will stop there because I'm sure you heard it all before
I just hope you find the way to rise from ashes because you sound like someone who doesn't deserve to feel so miserable
 

Phoenixx

Well-known member
I'm so sorry you had to go through all that ::(: Hang in there. You'll find someone who could help you, I'm sure. I hope you find the strength to get over what happened and not let it take over your life.
 

Feathers

Well-known member
Hey N.

Sorry to hear about this...

Well, guess what? School is NOT everything... Someone needs to tell that to that guy, oi!
I was really obsessed with school and grades too, and had huge ambitious plans (okay still have'em, but they are different...)

I think you have great insight into these things and maybe you could really help people in similar situations?

Someone on this site recommended 'Overcoming Social Anxiety' - Step by Step, I checked it out and it seems very helpful.. Totally recommend to check it out..
Have you tried EFT (emofree.com) or TAT (tatlife.com) yet?
What about any nutritional or lifestyle changes?

It's really inspiring to read how you managed to get good grades, find good friends and even had good times in the past!!
I bet when you were younger you didn't think that could happen either?
So, the future can still bring you good things, even if you don't feel so now...

Setbacks really suck... I've heard some horror stories about roommates or flatmates, yours seems to be one of the worst I guess.. (I hope you're not living with him anymore!!) Maybe your story can be a story of warning to others to not 'endure' in such or similar situations, and to move away from such a roomate sooner, and most of all to not believe such things as told and to verify things first!!

People can have really bad ideas of what could be 'helpful'... I've had family or relatives or friends tell me really weird stuff too, at times... And some other people on this site had similar experiences too.. At least kudos to you for recognizing it for what it is: a bunch of nonsense!!
(And yes, I'm not perfect, so I may have said stuff in the past or present that wasn't very helpful too, and was sorry for it later..)

One can only pity the future patients of such a doctor (if he ever gets to be one, if he doesn't change - or maybe this shook him up and he'll change his ways?)
It does sound a bit as if your 'friend' was jealous of your academic successes maybe? (And maybe of your being slim too!!)

Have you googled long-term effects of those meds you've taken? Maybe there is some info in how much time the brain could renew itself?
Are you taking any supplements? (like magnesium or B vitamins or fish oil or such)

Check if some of your symptoms could be from those meds, or withdrawal from them... (even getting suicidal can be a med side-effect too, at least partly) some people go through hell after withdrawal and there are support guides and even support forums online with help for that.

Can you still transfer elsewhere? Or maybe next year?
 

Slyce

New member
I feel for you N, I really do.

People shouldn't say they feel sorry for you. I don't know about you, but I have more than enough self-pity that I don't need anyone to feel sorry for me.

I have also been bullied until 8th grade, but for me it started earlier than I can even remember. One of my earliest memories is of having rocks thrown in my face by the same piece of **** that made my life miserable for almost 10 years. The bullying has scarred me for life, fear is baked into my existence. I neurotically try to please everybody, always scared of what people think. I'm terrified of trying anything new, i'd rather chew off my arm than ever talk to somebody on the phone.

But I'm getting better..

Reading your story inspired me to share mine, and to share what I feel has helped me. At first I didn't think I could offer any more than the stereotypical "Don't worry about what others think..." and the like, but the more I thought about it, the more I could think of practical, applicable things that could be done.

I speak of regaining self-confidence, because that is how I framed it when I began working (hard) on myself, and trying to get past this. Most of the progress I have made is by heavy reflection and introspection, with maybe 20-25% of it being bits of help from talking to lots of people and a psychologist.

The first and most important step in regaining your confidence is state of mind. If you're constantly thinking about how ****ty you are and how bad you feel about yourself, then it will be even more likely that you will keep thinking this way. Our brain rewires itself in millions of minute ways every day, and (excuse my terrible analogy) if the river of your thoughts keeps carving the same path, then the gulleys you are left with will be ever harder to mould into what you want them to be. Therefore the first important thing you need to do to in the early stages is to keep yourself DISTRACTED. I cannot emphasize this enough. Find an activity you are comfortable with, something that demands all of your attention and energy (so preferably something intensely physical), that you are scheduled to do at least a few times a week.

That thing for me was starting up taking taekwondo lessons again. It builds confidence, is fun, challenging, and requires an immense amount of energy. Note that I think violence is never justifiable, and I have never been in a fight in my life. Funny thing, if this were last year, i would also say that violence is never justifiable, but that if I ever saw my aggressor again, i would want to kill him. Now I feel for his pain, and even have some incredibly wierd dreams where i am actually his friend. But coming back to my original point, I always feel great when I walk out of my taekwondo lessons, no matter what.

Now I know what you're thinking, it's not easy to just up and start doing an activity you want to do. I agree, it takes confidence to initiate yourself into something you're not completely comfortable with, even some things you are comfortable with. This is where I suggest something unusual. My substitute for confidence was extreme misery. Every time that I would feel the most miserable about myself, I made a concerted effort to do everything I could to make myself better. If you can focus all the anger and misery into forcing yourself to do something you want to do but are afraid, you would be surprised what you're capable of. I sure was. I've done the most progress on myself when I was at my worst.

I also have a few warnings to offer. Don't fall into the trap of believing that finding a partner will solve all of your confidence problems. That is what I thought. I recently broke up with my girlfriend, a wonderful girl, because I was not happy. I thought I had strong feelings for her, but in the end those strong feelings were fear of being alone. I always felt quite empty, but my mile marker was that if I can't imagine how my life would be without her, then I must love her. Wrong. I had no feelings for her, nor did I have feelings for anyone else in my life. I had slaved endlessly to make sure that she was always happy, but in the end I did not know what I wanted to be happy, and did nothing to achieve it. I always thought that if I made everyone else in my life happy, that my happiness would ensue. Double wrong.

Also, don't believe the myth that fulfilling your childhood dreams, becoming affluent and securing a bright future will make you feel better about yourself. It won't. I got a degree in computer science and got a dream job programming, with a bright future. I make good money, have the car of my dreams, a nice apartment, everything I could ever want, and all of this much younger than I would have ever imagined. It doesn't matter, it's all just hollow nothingness. I am not at all happier than when I had nothing. What I do have that really matters to me though, is friends. They will always be with me, and I am glad that I did not wait too long to tell them how I felt.

Now, the most significant thing I can add to this, I have only now figured out in the last day (time between reading your post, N, and having my account approved at spw.com). The reason I stumbled onto this site in the first place is that I was in extreme misery myself. I was trying to find some way to improve myself after someone made me feel more terrible than I'd felt in many years. Then I stumbled onto your post, which brought up strong feelings from my childhood, and I immediately started thinking of things I could say to help. When I realized that I might actually have something useful to contribute, and the thought of even having the possibility of helping someone like me brought me out of my pit of misery. I stopped thinking about that thing that made me feel terrible about myself and started thinking about how I could help. All day I awaited my account approval to go through while thinking of all I could say to help, and you know what? Something that had me crying myself to sleep on Saturday seems completely insignificant today. All thanks to you, N, and I'd like to thank you for helping me through a hard time.

My ignorant advice for you, N, would be to find someone worse off than you who needs your help. Your limited medical training would be of immense usefulness in poorer countries. I have a friend who went to help poor families in southern Thailand, immediately out of high school. He delivered 3 babies when he was there (if you have white skin they automatically assume you're a medically trained rocket-scientist but i digress). Imagine how much good somebody who has ACTUAL medical training could do. Tanzania, D.R. Congo, North Korea, (and a hundred more) all places that someone with a little bit of medical training and a lot of heart could make all the difference in hundreds to thousands of people's lives. Not only that but you would also be surrounded with compassionate people who care about others.

Bullying has destroyed your past, N, but you still have the choice of how your future will turn out. I believe that you are normal, because I believe that you are like me. I hope this helps you like you've helped me.

Disclaimer: I do not want to pretend like I know anything, or that I've solved all my problems, far from it. I'm just sharing what my experience has been. I can be completely wrong in every way, you (everybody) should just take what works for you and leave the rest.

Please let me know if any of this helps.
 

Nobody65

Member
Thank you everyone. I really do appreciate the responses that I have received. I am still here and in a better place as of now. I have come back time and time again after getting knocked down and I will do this again. I will have to find a way. Reaching out is something that I should have done years ago and now that I am, I am slowly making progress. It is, unfortunately, very slow however.
Slyce, I wanted to tell you specifically, that it helped to know just that I was able to give you some peace. I will continue to frequent this board and I will continue to work towards a life that I can be satisfied with.

One thing that I wish we all had, something that could help a lot of us, would be more success stories around here. I know it has been depressing for me, feeling like I can never have a normal life, to not know of anyone who is living like nothing ever happened to them. That's the thing though, those who get better no longer need the comfort of these boards. I hope to find my way, and to help others find theirs.
 

Hastings & Main

Well-known member
Hey Nobody - good to hear you're feeling a bit better.
It'd be great to hear more success stories on the site, but really, when most people 'get over it', feel better, feel they have their problems sorted out etc, they very rarely come back to tell about it, for very many reasons (feeling so good they feel it might set them back coming on the site again, actually forget about the site with the newfound feeling of happiness etc, or they leave, get into a bad setback and feel too embarrassed to come back & think they'll be starting all over again - which people shouldn't feel, by the way).

Best to read through many different topics and glean tips here and there from others' ongoing recuperation - and even setbacks to see warning signs etc - and build up a good foundation you can look back on when hitting a dip in the road.
Sounds geeky, but I clip everything I find useful to notepad...
 

Bustn Justin

Well-known member
I am glad you have the courage to tell your story. I have dealt with the bullying crap in my school years and in my adulthood. i have allowed these peeps to bring me down and make me feel like I was ****. It is def gonna take me alot of energy to change those thoughts to mre positive and confident ones.
 
D

deleted user 1

Guest
I went cold reading that. We went through almost identical circumstances.
 

Slyce

New member
I'm glad I helped, N, it helped me too (again). I'm glad to hear that you're making progress. I am also making some progress, and I agree that it is quite slow going. If you keep putting a sustained effort into i though, it slowly gets easier with time.

Through my efforts, research and determination, I have found a number of good concrete ways to deal with my social phobia, even to the point where I would put myself intentionally into anxiety-inducing (but not threatening) situations so that I could practice my coping mechanisms. My first big step was utterly blind luck, I decided to look up Dr. Richard's Overcoming Social Anxiety program (audiobook-like therapy sessions) that I had seen someone recommend on another thread here. I am about a quarter of the way through the sessions, and I have to say that it is VERY well done and thought out. Dr. Richards seems to be pioneering the research into social anxiety since it is not a very well documented or researched topic. The program can be purchased for around 260$, but if you can't afford that it could probably be acquired by shadier means. However I recommend strongly that you pay for it if you can, the man really has done his work.

The first and I think most important strategy of all, and I attribute all of this knowledge to Dr. Richards (he explains it much better than I can), is to overcome Automatic Negative Thinking. It's sorta like if someone tells you bad things over and over again, you'll eventually start to believe it. It's really incredibly hard to notice when you're having negative thoughts about yourself, but when you do notice yourself thinking negatively, STOP! At that moment, give yourself a subconscious slap in the face, visualize a big stop sign, yell at the top of your lungs inside your head, whatever to get your own attention, and then rationalize away that negative thought. "There's no way that girl would ever find me interesting", "I'm so useless sometimes", "I can't possibly go in front of them and not make a fool of myself". It's really something automatic that you barely notice when you're thinking it, but it really accumulates over the years, and also builds onto itself as you do it more and more often. But these thoughts aren't at all rational, in the end. They need to first be noticed, and then dismissed with a rational statement. "That girl will find me interesting if I decide I want her to", "I have a lot of strengths and I display them all the time", "They're too distracted with their own problems to notice if I do anything silly or stupid". If you expect to be nervous in a situation beforehand, then you WILL be nervous. If you can't stop thinking about bad things that could happen, then the ONLY things you will actually notice will be bad things. Stopping thinking negatively is really the first thing you need to do before moving forward, and it will be the foundation of all your future social interactions.

The second strategy is relaxing on command. At first this takes a bit of dedicated practice time (4-5 sessions of 20 to 30 min, absolutely NO distractions), but after some practice you can summon it almost instantly. Practice this by sitting in a comfortable chair or couch, in a silent room, free of any and all distractions. Start with your feet and move your way up, relaxing every single body part for up to 30 seconds, then moving on. Continue this until you are completely relaxed, and try breathing a little slower than you usually do. Once you are sufficiently relaxed, start thinking of a word ("peace"), or phrase ("ok, just relax"), or an image if you're a visual person (fluffy sheep lazily jumping a fence, etc). This word/phrase/image will be your key to unlocking this relaxed state of mind. Once you've chosen your key, think about it, and nothing else, as you start relaxing your whole body from head to toe (or toe to head) once more. Practice this as many times as necessary until you can summon it fairly easily. "Jeez f*ing jerks in BMWs think they can park wherever they want", "ok, just relax, forget about it". Breathe slowly. I find that the slower I release my breath while exhaling, the more it lowers my heart rate. It gets easier as you learn to control your breathing. If you take 5 seconds to inhale, hold it for 5 seconds, and exhale very slowly over 20 seconds, then you're only taking 2 breaths per minute. That's about as good as it gets.

I actively practiced this technique this week, and I was surprised how quickly I saw results. I asked out a girl at my work, and even though she said she wasn't interested in dating anyone currently, she turned around and hit on almost every guy at my work, then started dating somebody else. Every time I saw her I felt like utter crap. Of course, as some almost cruel ironic trick of fate, her manager decided that she should change cubicles and sit right beside me, where I could see her at any moment without even turning my head. This week I decided that I was really sick of getting a knot in my stomach every time I saw her. So I sat in my chair, looked at her to conjure up my feelings of well... crap, and then practiced my "ok, just relax" and breathing until I felt calm. Then I looked at her again and got anxious again, then forced myself to relax again. Over and over more than 10 times I think, until I barely got anxious at all. The next day, I walked in and saw her, and I felt nothing. I was floored.

I will be back with more later as I progress, and I will do my very best not to forget about this place when I'm all better, and help you all out as you've helped me.
 
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