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ElboRuum

(4,717 posts)
Mon Nov 25, 2013, 11:59 PM Nov 2013

Anyone else here engage in "post therapy"?

You've heard of letter therapy, right? If you don't know what this is, it's a bit of a coping tool where if you are agitated by another person's actions or words, you write a letter to that person, generally as nasty as you would have if in the heat of the moment said it to their face. You read it and reread it as many times as you like, but when you are done, you throw it out. I suppose the idea is to allow the heat of the anger to subside long enough for you to process it and look at it in retrospect without incurring the obvious social hazards associated with barking nasty shit into people's faces.

Post therapy is kind of like that, only with an added dimension. You write the post, you read it and read it. Then you reassess it and maybe edit a bit here and there, just to see if somewhere in all that there is more than just irritation. Sometimes there is, so you may edit it again, maybe to add a bit more invective, other times to bring the tone out of the rafters.

But here is the challenge: backing out of the reply page, essentially throwing out your nastygram. Because there it sits, the post button. It's like a calculus you are struggling to make sense of. Here, on this page, may be a perfectly legitimate viewpoint, but it comes from irritation, and its purpose is to rebuke another poster. It may be justified. It may not. Is it worth expressing? Or is it a better thing to simply let it go? And there it sits, that post button. Is it too strident? Am I playing with a hide? Or in extreme cases, a boot? Is the point worth making or is it merely adding more entropy to the already severe chaos? Decisions, decisions.

Most of the time, you'll decide to back off.

Why post this here? Because of late, I've been tiring of the "lather, rinse, repeat" we all know and loathe because I know that I want to address different topics of interest, not just here, but in GD as well as other groups, yet the board keeps getting swept up in these tiresome border skirmishes at the edge of HoF space. I post this here because, well, some people seemed obsessed with what we say about what if only to say, see what the "boy's club is saying about yada yada", what do you expect from that place, etc. even though we all know its more generally directed. But for possession of the Y chromosome, we seem to be the focus of their outrage most of the time. So I feel like it would be most appropriate to get input here on this.

Long story short, I want to know if I'm the only one who engages in this sort of last second "back off the button" consideration.

10 replies = new reply since forum marked as read
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Anyone else here engage in "post therapy"? (Original Post) ElboRuum Nov 2013 OP
No you are not, I've thrown away many drafted Internet posts on many different topics and decided to PoliticAverse Nov 2013 #1
What you are describing sounds like Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) Major Nikon Nov 2013 #2
I don't know the name of the full course of therapy, I just know the one practice. ElboRuum Nov 2013 #3
I had a doozy ready to fire off when I read.... ProudToBeBlueInRhody Nov 2013 #4
I had one ready... ElboRuum Nov 2013 #5
Whaaaat? HappyMe Nov 2013 #7
Yup ProudToBeBlueInRhody Nov 2013 #8
More than a few times. westerebus Nov 2013 #6
Jesus thermonuclear Christ. I say maybe 1% of the shit I could say. I am RESTRAINED. Warren DeMontague Nov 2013 #9
The disruptor's are very antagonistic. westerebus Nov 2013 #10

PoliticAverse

(26,366 posts)
1. No you are not, I've thrown away many drafted Internet posts on many different topics and decided to
Tue Nov 26, 2013, 12:03 AM
Nov 2013

just move on instead.

Major Nikon

(36,827 posts)
2. What you are describing sounds like Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT)
Tue Nov 26, 2013, 12:15 AM
Nov 2013

It's quite useful if you believe you are becoming a slave to your emotions because it forces you to use the other side of your brain to evaluate your reactions.

ElboRuum

(4,717 posts)
3. I don't know the name of the full course of therapy, I just know the one practice.
Tue Nov 26, 2013, 12:27 AM
Nov 2013

But you might be right. It seems by taking the time to defer the "immediacy" of the reaction, you have both a chance to reveal your anger (or other negative emotional reaction) to yourself in the terms you would have otherwise used, while at the same time offering you the ability to take a step back from it and come to terms with it more reasonably than the reaction would otherwise allow.

ProudToBeBlueInRhody

(16,399 posts)
4. I had a doozy ready to fire off when I read....
Tue Nov 26, 2013, 12:42 AM
Nov 2013

...."There are liberal men who are pro-choice just so they can avoid the responsibility of pregnancy".

Fortunately, I stopped. I took a breath. And considered the source and the forum. Glad I did.

ElboRuum

(4,717 posts)
5. I had one ready...
Tue Nov 26, 2013, 12:52 AM
Nov 2013

...and it was one that prompted this OP. Took every ounce of effort to not hit the button with a sneer and a "fuck it".

HappyMe

(20,277 posts)
7. Whaaaat?
Tue Nov 26, 2013, 12:28 PM
Nov 2013

I'm glad I didn't see that.

I have typed up a couple of smack down posts in response to completely ignorant posts like you mentioned. I always re-read and dump it. Sometimes it ain't worth it.

ProudToBeBlueInRhody

(16,399 posts)
8. Yup
Tue Nov 26, 2013, 01:22 PM
Nov 2013

It was about a month or two ago. Don't know what event spurred it on, but I guess when support of a woman's rights is seen as self-serving....

westerebus

(2,976 posts)
6. More than a few times.
Tue Nov 26, 2013, 11:40 AM
Nov 2013

Attempting a discussion with some people, is not a productive process when the investment of time and effort fall on the ears of those who sing their song of distress so fervently, the attempt is met with derision so often, that why bother adding to the chaos when better minds than mine have had to "lather, rinse, repeat" repeatedly to no avail, presents a moment of dilemma on if to proceed ?

If that's the question, then the answer appears self evident.

And let's not exclude the war on liberals who disagree with policy.

NSA for example.

Civility is the first casualty of intolerance.

Warren DeMontague

(80,708 posts)
9. Jesus thermonuclear Christ. I say maybe 1% of the shit I could say. I am RESTRAINED.
Tue Nov 26, 2013, 11:35 PM
Nov 2013

And I dont mean personal insults, attacks, the like... But calling certain people on their repeated, transparent, and shockingly easy to psychoanalyze bullshit? Bulldozing poorly constructed logical edifices instead of humoring them?

like the song says. What I choose, not to do.

People think I "ridicule", or I'm mean- shit, I think I try hard to be nice, compassionate, understanding.

If I tended towards the sort, the level of nastiness that some other folks here regularly get down into?

Oooooh, It would not be pretty.

But, I believe in a fuzzy, general sort of karma, and I'm actually a fairly amicable sort. But certainly I've been known to vent for 20 minutes into a reply window only to toss it to the wind. Sometimes you gotta.

westerebus

(2,976 posts)
10. The disruptor's are very antagonistic.
Fri Nov 29, 2013, 03:38 AM
Nov 2013

It's apparent those who dislike men to such a great extent they are more than willing to return over and over again to a subject line for no other reason than to voice their disdain for the male gender cloaked under the guise of feminism that the level of animosity they bring to DU is disheartening.

My understanding of feminism is that of equality. Equality in economics. Equality in opportunity. Equality in civil rights. Gender equality. Sexual equality. Racial equality.

And no where does it say women only. Or men only. Or straight only. Or gay only. Or white only. Or black only.

It's human rights for everybody.

That is what they choose to ignore.

rant over with..











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