Well, while we’ve all got some extra time on our hands, and could probably use a bit of help with anxiety, you may be thinking about finding a good book, so here are some recommendations from calmsage.com.
Have you read any of these? Have your own recommendation?
https://www.calmsage.com/best-self-help-books-for-depression-and-anxiety/
“END IT is a Coalition of the leading organizations in the world in the fight for FREEDOM. Each of our amazing Coalition Partners are doing the work, on the ground, everyday, to bring AWARENESS, PREVENTION, RESCUE, and RESTORATION. Join us as we raise our voices for FREEDOM.” Shine a Light on Slavery Day- Feb. 25
When I think about Monika’s point, and my own look at the numbers, I repeat what I said back then, when looking at one individual, the ACE survey is never the whole story. There are lots of childhood experiences that go unaccounted for, there are individual levels of resilience that are not accounted for, and there are early interventions that are not considered. One traumatic experience equals one traumatic experience in the final number, regardless of whether that experience was immediately followed up with support and maybe even therapy, or if it was ignored and maybe even repeated. There are numerous factors beyond simply answering more than 4 questions yes and assuming you’re an addict, or not answering enough questions yes and assuming you aren’t. It is much more complicated than that.Â
The ACE information is important though because it points us back to that childhood trauma and says “what happened to you?” when treating an individual for depression, or addiction, so that we can include that in our healing. What we want to be careful with is turning it into a blunt instrument when there is still so much not being accounted for within it.Â
“One in six men are sexually abused as boys, according to multiple studies. But a much smaller number ever talk about it. Most suffer in silence. I want this story to reach those who have gone through any form of sexual abuse, from the teenager struggling with his own silence to the man who has…
I’m glad so many people are open to having a robot therapist, because as we have discussed many times, we don’t have nearly enough therapists to treat everyone who needs it, and you can’t just create more trained therapists very quickly. With good enough artificial intelligence programming, we CAN spin up more trained chat robots to meet the need. Is the programming good enough today? I don’t know. I’m guessing there is still some work to do, but at what point is it better than what we have now for so many people, which is nothing?
The way to start believing in yourself is to have experiences you can look back on and draw strength from. When I feel anxious about something at work, meeting new people, moving, or other stressful situations, it helps tremendously to recall when I have already successfully done those things.
Or, sometimes it helps to remember the times I wasn’t successful, but I survived nonetheless. That can also be a huge relief, the memory that these failures, or accidents, won’t kill me.
When your experience tells you that something is going to hurt you, your brain will figure out how to avoid and survive it. It will naturally kick in. Again, you can learn to work around that, or maybe even ignore it, but expecting your brain to magically stop reacting is asking yourself to not be human.
Maybe instead of expecting that from yourself, or anyone, give your brain some credit for going into survival mode, for keeping you alive, and be gentle with yourself.
Even if you are in a situation where acting out of fear is silly, it’s OK to feel the fear.
