One step forward, two steps back

I decided today that I could either hide behind a two-hour episode of what happened after the Bachelor and the Final Rose or confront the doozie of a social anxiety episode I faced on Monday.

I have to admit that it set me back a bit and I'm still trying to pick myself up.

And yes, I might add, I did fall off the wagon again and stop doing my therapy. All I ask is that you meet me where I am today and call it good. We all have our ups and downs.

I started the therapy series "again" last week. I once again decided I needed to be much more pro-active about helping myself heal. I completed the first session's assignments and wrote out a "stop statement" to stop my negative thinking and wrote out some pro-active statements to help me think about my situation differently. I've also been practicing "slow talk" as one of the ways to help keep me focused on calming myself. And I tried to refocus with distraction techniques to help keep the negative thoughts out.

I have to say first of all, that I was surprised at how often I had negative thoughts and secondly, how much energy it takes to stop them and take time to refocus. This therapy does take work. Mental work. Emotional Work. And it takes it every day. And because I've been living negatively for so long, it's kind of hard and I want to whine and say, "This is too hard! Can't I just get better without having to do this?"

The therapy is supposed to be done every day when you're alone and due to life's distractions, I ended up doing it about 3 or 4 days out of 7...and even with my lack of consistency I really did start to feel more hopeful.

And you know how it goes, you feel more hopeful, so you slow down on your determination to do the therapy because you feel like you're getting better...and it starts all over again.

Anyway, then came Monday. I knew my visiting teachers would be coming and I'd tried to push it out of my mind like it wasn't a big deal (but my inner voice, that blasted inner voice kept telling me I was really dreading it). I know I wasn't stopping my negative thoughts as fast as they were coming in. I was in an asteroids game without a controller.

So I decided to take a crash course in reading over my flashcards (stop statement and positive thought statements) minutes before they were going to come over (hahaha. ha.). Unfortunately, there are no short-cuts to healing. No Cliff's Notes for Social Anxiety Therapy.

So there I was, on high alert, reading the flashcards and battling negative thoughts while trying to keep a smile on my face saying, "it's going to be fine". And of course you can guess, it wasn't fine. The asteroids pounded me.

I had basically gotten myself into a state of anxiety as I rushed to prevent myself from getting into one. Bad timing. I got choked up during their visit, had to fake a cough, get water, thought about how red my face was, kept wondering when they were going to leave, meanwhile flashcard statements were bouncing around in my mind trying to combat the evil forces. Sorry little flashcards, panic won.

When they finally left, which couldn't come fast enough I might add, I was devastated. After all my hard work to heal and there I stood, back where I started...well, let's be honest, I felt I had fallen even farther back than where I started.

Today is a new day. And after the shock and awe of my downfall has somewhat subsided I realized one thing. The whole "after all my hard work to heal..." was hogwash. I did the therapy 3 or 4 days out of 7. Dr. Richards states countless times that consistency and repetition are key to healing.

Instead of following my inner voice to never have my visiting teachers over again, never be a visiting teacher again, never allow home teachers to come into our home and/or leave the church entirely; quit my job, never see anyone again and live in a dark cave, I've vowed to pick myself up and start again. I will do the session 1 therapy again this week every day so I can move on to session two. I really want to jump ahead, but I have to follow the steps if I'm really going to heal.

I can't keep living this way. I just can't. This isn't any way to live.

Here's to another week of session 1: Overcoming Social Anxiety.

Here's to healing.

Day 1: Overcoming Social Anxiety Step-by-Step

Okay, so I should have written "Day 1: again" since yes, I have started and stopped this series a number of times and have only complete through CD #2 (the first actual therapy CD). The therapy series I'm referring to is entitled Overcoming Social Anxiety Step-by-Step by Dr. Thomas A. Richards, Ph.D. from the Social Anxiety Institute.

I was tempted not to start again today, even though I had committed to it this weekend. Why? Because I had a good day at church yesterday. Good, for me, is not having an anxious episode while at church. I wasn't anxious during church yesterday for whatever reason. I even had to give a prayer in RS, meet my new visiting teachers AND attend tithing settlement with our new bishop. Not to say there weren't any nerves, but everything was mild to say the least. I don't know what causes one day to be okay and another to be horrific. It's such a relief to find a moment of respite.

Anyway, as I was talking myself out of starting today because of my good day yesterday, I reminded myself that just because I have one good day doesn't mean I'm cured. I've fallen into that trap before and all it does is lead me down a path where I have to hit rock bottom again before admitting I still need help and painfully pulling myself back to my starting point.

The first CD is more of an overview of the therapy (comprehensive cognitive-behavioral therapy specifically designed and structured to help overcome social anxiety disorder). Dr. Richards speaks about his own experiences with social anxiety and the path to overcoming it.

I feel even a little better after having listened to the overview because I know I'm going in the right direction.