Gonna make a case for suppression here…hear me out.
I used to think ignoring my problems at all was a recipe for disaster, I’d bottle up and someday explode. So I did the diametric opposite and thought about my problems way. too. much. I believed that thinking about them was the only way I could come to terms with them. It was an illusion of control. If I think hard enough, I’ll figure something out. I’ll come up with a plan. I’ll find a way to fix everything.
Some problems, no amount of thinking is going to solve it. I can’t think my disease away. If the problem is unsolvable, what then? You can still think, of course. Think about it and try to come to some profound realization about how the problem isn’t as bad as you had thought. But is that going to happen? I don’t know, but it never happened for me. My problems suck. Why am I spending all this time thinking about the part of my life that is shitty?
I’m not saying I’ve buried it deep inside, but I don’t stew on things nearly as much anymore, and that has been the #1 thing that has helped me. I allow myself to get distracted by the things in my life that are good. I don’t dwell and I don’t make contingency plans. I let life happen to me and I make a conscious effort to appreciate the things that are worth appreciating. I don’t feel like a victim anymore.
Learning to ignore my problems a bit more did more for me than all that thinking put together.