Hug?

to take a step out and to realize that nothing is happening. A mental trigger launches a mental image or scene, but nothing is actually happening. Even the emotions you feel are based on reactions to something not happening.

So, the question becomes, what triggers these things, and how to stop them?

For some people, being able to acknowledge in the middle of this sort of thing that it isn't happening is all it takes for it to end or lessen over time.

I think a big step would to be try and acknowledge that you aren't powerless to these things, because they are happening in your mind. Right now, you seem to think it is some Clockwork Orange scene, with your eyes pried open and you're tethered there and being forced to watch. But it isn't true.

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"Wanting to be someone else is a waste of the person you are." - Kurt Cobain