Exposure Therapy - Tumblr Posts

Okay, we've had plenty of those "popular food that you hate" polls.It's time for:

Exposure Therapy Doesn’t Work That Way

I occasionally encounter well-meaning people who, upon hearing of my anxiety disorder, take it upon themselves to “help me face my fears.” They know a little bit about exposure therapy, so they figure that if they just tell me “You can do it! It’ll be fine!” and throw me into the anxiety-provoking situation, I will conquer my fear.

In case it wasn’t clear from the title, that doesn’t work. At all. Ever. Do not do this to someone. Real exposure therapy is done gradually and with a trained professional. There is always, always the option to say no/stop without getting in trouble. If the anxious person doesn’t have a way out of the situation, it’s not exposure therapy. It’s throwing someone into the deep end without a life jacket.

Exposure Therapy with Error and CC (sorry if I handled it wrong, I’m still learning about these kinds of stuff)

Bonus:

ok 25 minutes with my face posted that's enough for today

I had the most chaotic day ever.

I woke up shaking from anxiety; nothing new, just the usual. I cried the whole morning, then I decided I should at least go out to sit on one of the college's benches (I live in a dormitory as I am an international student in Budapest currently). Suddenly, one of the boys that also live in this dormitory wrote to me, asked me how I am (he knows about my mental struggles) and I told him the truth. He was really kind to me and I think that helped a lot, because I decided to try and go out on my own to walk on the street today (I think I've developed agoraphobia as I am really at the verge of crying and shaking in my whole body every time I have to go alone anywhere). Not only did I managed to go to the destination I had in mind, but I attempted to get on the public transportation too (the tram & the metro - had some kind of panic/anxiety coming when I left the metro station to go back to the tram, but it kind of went away in like two minutes?? - I told my mind I won't tolerate abuse from myself anymore). I was shaking and I felt fear the whole time, I felt like every other muscle in me was hurting, but I did it! Then, a couple hours later I went out again with the guy I mentioned earlier and nothing bad happened! I can't believe how many big steps I took today! It is so hard to feel it, but I know I have to be proud of myself. And I am trying really hard to do so. I think the people were right about this: exposure really helps better than any medicine; it teaches your brain to unlearn the fear patterns.

Thank you for reading this, I will try going out again tomorrow and will give you an update on how it went.

Until then: be kind to yourself, be patient and be proud of any little accomplishment you've achieved. I believe in you. And I believe in myself too.

- Reni

My sleeping habits are worsening, even though I always try to stick to my routine and go to bed before 11 PM. I have no idea how much I slept last night, I only know that I woke up in the middle of the night multiple times and with giant anxiety in the morning. I had no idea how I will manage to go to uni, but somehow I convinced my brain we must go because it would be worse staying at home dwelling on anxiety. I took my magnesium and told myself that if it's gonna suck, I can always turn back home. I didn't. I talked to my brain/subconscious constantly on the way to uni, told her I loved her, I am proud of her and we will be alright and imagined hugging her in my mind. I always try to beg for her forgiveness for bullying her through all these years; no wonder she is afraid to trust me. I find it's easier to manage my anxiety if I imagine that in this body there live two parts of me: the conscious and the subconscious. I have to take care of both of them.

So I went to uni and it wasn't as bad as the past few times. After that I went shopping because I needed to grab some meds, groceries and a postcard I will send home to Mother's Day for my mom. Every time I think about her, I begin to cry, there are no exceptions, I want to go home terribly, but at the same time I know God wants me to be here for a reason. I trust his timing and motives. Anyway, I wanted to cry all the way home from shopping, I thought I will die alone on the street, it was raining and the wind blowing and I felt like I will never get back to my dorm room... But I'm here. I survived. And I feel proud of myself, even though the day isn't over yet.

- Reni

I hate being bad because of fear.

Sometimes, because of my OCD and trauma, I’ll avoid certain stuff. This can be hard to explain to others so it often leads me to lie or come off as passive aggressive when I’m asked to do a task/go somewhere/touch something that I’m scared of.

I know that avoidance is unhealthy and reinforces the cycle of anxiety, but it’s so hard to fight against and I hate being so scared and shaking and just having to act fine and stay stiff and quiet because I “shouldn’t act anxious” and am “scared of nothing” according to my mother.

Though, when I promise to do something or accept a task that I then avoid and never do, it upsets people, reasonably. I hurt other people to avoid my own fear and I don’t know how to help it.

I take therapy, anxiety meds, exposure therapy and I’m getting much better but it’s still so hard. I wish it could just stop and I could follow instructions without having irritational fear making me break rules and promises.

I don’t want to be a bad kid, I wish I could be the best kid out there, but that’s just not possible right now with what’s being asked of me.

Banner by @ alwaysribbit

Did you know?

The creation and possession of siimulated child pornography is a US felony, indulging in a paraphilia will make a paraphilia worse, exposure therapy cannot be performed autonomously using exclusively your own judgement, and the constant reinforcement of certain type of content as “normal” is called “mainstreaming”, which is a technique to reduce the natural repulsion to these concepts, thus making it feel more acceptable.

Callout culture is bad, but cases of callout culture being irredeemable are often exaggerated, and access to instances of callouts being useful are downplayed in order to exploit your emotions and make you critical of a belief you would otherwise agree with. It is the most historically prevalent form of emotional manipulation known to the human race because it involves limiting your ability to even know that there is context to the false statements people make, which is hugely useful when you want humans to act against their nature