My 24-year-old daughter just enrolled in a health insurance plan for the first time (I retired and lost coverage for my adult kids). She received something from the company in the mail. A week or so ago, I suggested she open it soon, as it might be something important. It sat in a pile ever since, until something else came today and I added it to the pile. This is fairly typical any time she receives mail, gets her paycheck, etc. I encouraged her to open the mail last night, and she started crying, saying she just can't make herself do it. My statement that "it might be something important" only seemed to make matters worse. After a lot of deep breaths and me trying to make it clear that I just wanted to understand, she reflected that she can't open mail because it reminds her of something bad. As a high schooler, she used to hate getting her grades in the mail, as she would never know if they were going to be good, bad, or in between. So... I think we're gaining clarity about why she hates to deal with mail. She knows objectively that she *should* open it and deal with it, and that it's most likely going to be benign. But... we're both at a loss as to how to try to counter the gut-level reaction that mail is bad and to be avoided. We talked about setting up a day each month that is "open your mail day" as a possibility. Any other suggestions? I appreciate the group wisdom of AE so much!

Posted by bethannroybal at 2022-12-14 05:19:23 UTC