I Want to Die but I Want to Eat Tteokbokki

‘What’s wrong with rationalising? It’s a perfectly reasonable defence mechanism. It’s you trying to find reasons behind your hurt or your decisions.’

For example, some people lose their first love and think, I’ll never find another person like them, but after a while, a new person takes their place. Think of yourself as entering a sea change in life, and choose things you haven’t chosen before – try to enter situations, even ones you know will end in failure, just to experience failure.

To Not Depend on Dependence

Just because you like one thing about a person, you don’t need to like everything about them. And just because you don’t like one thing about a person, it doesn’t mean the person as a whole isn’t worth your time.

Psychiatrist: I’d like you not to give too much credit to what people say about you. The moment you set out to be more empathic is the moment it becomes a chore

Psychiatrist: So you get good results?

Me: I do. Which makes me want to work harder, and that sometimes makes me stress out about getting better results.

If someone likes me, I go along with it for a while, and if that works out, we make it official.

I’d like you not to give too much credit to what people say about you. The moment you set out to be more empathic is the moment it becomes a chore. That would result in your empathy decreasing, if anything. It’s good not to fake interest in things you’re not interested in

How awful it must’ve been for people in the past who suffered from it but didn’t realise.

Psychiatrist: Do you really have to worry about these hypothetical people?

Me: Is it wrong to?

Psychiatrist: There’s no right or wrong here. It’s just notable. Because there’s really no end to worrying once you set your mind to it. If you shift your perspective from their past to your present, you can start perceiving your personal experiences in a more positive manner. From ‘How sad they didn’t realise this’ to ‘How lucky it is that I realise this.’ In the past, you didn’t know how to label your symptoms, but now you know. That’s a reason for relief, not for more suffering.

If we have a habit of judging people from a simplistic perspective, that perspective will eventually turn against ourselves.