So glad to hear you enjoyed yourself yesterday! What an empowering experience and feeling to know you overcame a situation that causes you much anxiety. Keep at it!
Well I went to the dinner, and although I was extremely uncomfortable for like the first hour, I did eventually become more relaxed. I was able to engage with everyone instead of sitting there trapped inside my own head, which is what usually happens. It's a great feeling to actually leave a place you were avoiding and know that you can do it again. The positive thoughts, and challenging the negative is really working for me.
Thank you for sharing this with us. This comes back to challenging the anxious thoughts. Go into this meeting armed with lots of positive self-talk and the rest will follow.
Going to my parents' house is a major trigger for me. I've been trying to figure out why, because I've been around my parents all my life... I should be comfortable around them, but I'm really not. Last time I was at their house I had an attack, and left. So now I have that memory as well as the guilt that I avoided instead of trying to let the anxiety pass. I have to go there for dinner, and I'm freaking out just a little bit.
I am telling myself that at the end of day I have two ways of looking at how it went. Either A: I get through it, and be proud of myself for sticking it out. Then that gives me a positive memory when I look back to say "hey, I can do this!"or B: I end up leaving and then I'm left with the last memory being the same one I have now. Which obviously is not helpful at all.
What I really want to know is: is this sound thinking before an event that scares you? Or is it bad to overthink it this much?
