Tuesday, July 30, 2013

Baby Steps



What About Bob is probably one of my favorite movies and it is one I would recommend to anyone, especially to those struggling. The 'baby steps' premise is shown in a comedic way in the movie but actually helped me out tremendously in my life in the past 12 months.

babysteps

I made multiple of these post-it notes and placed them in my room at home and in my apartment at school so I would see them everyday as constant reminders. A major part of my struggle has been overcoming my anxiety; I have Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD). Panic attacks were not all that uncommon to me and my GAD was so crippling that it used to take me more than an hour just to send a simple email or text message.

I began to see completing these little baby steps as accomplishments. They weren't accomplishments that garnered a reward, but they were things I became proud of. Before, I would be terrified to send that message, talk to that person, or get behind the wheel (the latter actually has a real reason) by acknowledging my accomplishment I realized that I was a small step closer to what I referred to as 'functioning in normal society'. These little accomplishments would add up into a major one that I could look back on months later and see exactly how far I had/ have come since I hit rock bottom.

To this day I haven't taken these notes down, in fact, I have added more with other sayings such as, ''Learn from the past but don't dwell on it''. I believe they serve as a reminder of how far I have come in my life but also as a way to keep pushing and that I still have so much further to go.

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