Worried about falling off the wagon

[dnp26]

I'm on week 7 of the program and have made amazing progress. Today I'm feeling a little off. I have some anxiety and not sure why. I'm so happy with my progress but I'm afaid I will fall back into my old ways and become that anxious obsessive person again. Any thoughts?

[NinjaFrodo]

Yeah, your worry is just added and unnecessary pressure. You have been suffering for anxiety and depression for a long time i am assuming so you have created many bad habits. Until a habit is changed you are more likely to continue it. You have not completely recovered yet so there may be many times where you slip back in some things and that is fine, it just means you are human. You still struggle with anxiety so its reasonable to still get that feeling every now and then but it isn't happening as much as before and the frequency will continue to lessen. As long as you recognize that this slippage is just that a slip and you can accept it, then you will still be motivated enough to go back. If you lie to yourself and tell yourself you shouldn't have slipped (which would be telling yourself that you are not allowed to be human because of what i stated earlier in this message with habits), you will lose self-esteem, motivation and you will greatly stress yourself out which in turn will push you to do your habits full force. Don't get caught in that trap and you will never go back to who you were before.


Mike

[JT_Money]

I agree - I had a pretty big slip backwards today, while on Session 3. I had been doing fairly well up until this point. It's the old adage "One step forward, two steps back". In other words, the path to recovery won't be smooth; there's going to be a few rocks to trip over here and there.

Don't fall into the 'all or nothing' trap (like I often do) and think that a set back means that it's all over and you failed. The whole program is a process of ups and downs.

[NinjaFrodo]

very nicely put JT