The plate dispenser theory of issues, trauma and heartache.

 Have you ever gone to a cafe or restaurant and seen one of these things. On the top it seems like there are 3 or 2 plates. But actually there is a spring under the plates and a long shaft they can descend into. There could be 3 plates, or 13, or 20 or more. It seems to me this is the perfect metaphor for the traumas and personal issues that stick to you. To those observing you from a distance it seems you are dealing with 2 or 3 big crisis or emotional issues. It even feels that way to you because the latest fire you've been fighting has forced you to shelve the issues you were wrestling. But if you are fortunate enough to take a plate off the stack you'll find the ones beneath it still there even things from years ago. Over the years it gets deeper and deeper. And everyone around you just assumes all you need to do is deal with the 3 plates. They don't see the heartache from 10 or 20 years ago that's going to emerge if enough of the stack gets taken off you that you can decompress. And you get to the point where it feels like it will never end. You'll never has resolution. And things will never get better because people can't see what you're really battling and even if they could they wouldn't know how to help. It's all below the surface to them.

Does any of this make sense? Can you relate to it?

Parents
  • Part of the problem is the issues on the top tend to be the sort of issues people assume will fix themselves with time. Like finding a job. Struggling with a course. etc The plates stacked underneath tend to be existential crisis's we couldn't resolve but can't move on from. We just had to shelve them to deal with matters of immediate survival. But there in the background we are still in existential crisis and in a sense have been for years.

Reply
  • Part of the problem is the issues on the top tend to be the sort of issues people assume will fix themselves with time. Like finding a job. Struggling with a course. etc The plates stacked underneath tend to be existential crisis's we couldn't resolve but can't move on from. We just had to shelve them to deal with matters of immediate survival. But there in the background we are still in existential crisis and in a sense have been for years.

Children
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