Originally Posted by
DesertEyes 
Me too
For me it was a mix of the grief process and "Stockholm syndrome". Grief at losing a marriage, losing my best friend and soul mate, losing my dreams and hopes for the future, etc. etc.
Stockholm syndrome because I had been under severe stress for several years and the normal way for a human mind to adapt to long term stress is to change it's internal perceptions such that the stress becomes "normal". When my divorce was final my brain went into "emotional whiplash" trying to deal with reality in the absence of continuous shots of adrenaline and other such emergency hormones. My body was so used to all the adrenalin that without it I felt _miserable_.
Simply hiding under the covers did nothing for me. I had to get out and force myself back into the real world so that my body would now re-adapt to a normal life.
Mike
This is all so interesting to me... Ive been in a hyper aroused state of panic for YEARS so now that Im not I feel like my brain and body are scanning constantly searching for fear or something to react to (I work with kids who have experienced trauma and this is pretty much exactly what they do too ironically).
Im finding my mind is FLOODED with images and memories and they're not all the bad ones (more of them are positive) and those are MUCH harder to cope with than the bad...
That is crazy huh? Positive memories are more painful to me than the nightmare ones I have lived for years...