First Group DBT - I expressed myself

Today was the first group Dialectical behaviour therapy (DBT). 

Arrived about 10 - 15 min late, but that's okay. I made it. I'm still really tired and by the morning tea break around 11:20 I had to go and get another caffeine hit. 

Overall, I Think it went pretty good though. There was only about six of us, with two facilitators. 

We did the 'two truths and one lie' icebreaker. Here's mine:

1. I've been bitten by a crocodile

2. I've been bitten by a shark

3. I've been stung by a sting ray

Do any of you readers know the lie?

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During this first group session I was already triggered by something. Now I don't usually get offended much, but when I do I usually ruminate and let it fester inside. After debating with myself for a little while whilst everyone was talking about WISE mind, I decided to speak up. It was quite challenging, and part of me still thinks its a stupid thing to get worked up about, but I knew expressing myself would make me feel better, so I did. 

Expressing myself more is one of my therapy goals, and being in a "safe space" I decided to give it ago. As I predicted it made me feel better afterwards. It was really hard when I was saying it out loud to the group though, I could tell I was having a hard time even getting the words out. In the beginning of the session we talked about being respectful and such but also using "I" statements. So that's what I did, I used the term "I". For example, I feel upset by this statement. Rather than saying I don't like what this person said.

I'm still having some negative thoughts about myself though. Things like"you shouldn't get so worked up about something so trivial" and then making fun of myself in a cruel way for feeling that way. I know I should feel proud for speaking up and expressing myself, in a way I do, but it's very hard after so long of not doing so. Maybe I should do another WISE mind ;)

Right now I'm in the library (It's much nicer there than my campus' library, more windows, feels nice and open and light). I've loaded up my image analysis software, but again it doesn't seem to be working properly, which is quite frustrating. Perhaps I should let it update when it asks next time, or even it just won't work without being connected by an Ethernet cable. At least I tried?