YOU ARE NOT ALONE - A companion online community discussion board for The Mental Illness Happy Hour podcast with Paul Gilmartin

Hi friends.

On the free media app Kanopy, I am watching episodes of the old cable documentary show, "Obsessed".

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Obsessed_(TV_series)

(The courage these people demonstrate: it is magnificent. It is a triumph of the human spirit. I am brought to tears, remembering from 15 years ago, the footage [season 1, episode 9] of a woman eating a tortilla chip.)

My Anxieties
My Tools via Bourne book
The Next Four Days
The Rest of This Summer

My Anxieties

Inspired by the heroics of the brothers and sisters in this show, my first step is to admit, right here and right now, four anxieties that are interfering with my life:

1. Not inviting out women who are clearly giving signals of attraction*.
2. Not cleaning my apartment.
3. Not building my professional skills
4. Tracking my eating (later this summer)

My Tools via Bourne book

I will use the Bourne anxiety book as my guide, and to give me tools to effect anxiety exposure hierarchies.

https://tinyurl.com/ynx5b6ca

The Next Four Days

Including today (Saturday), I have four days off. I hope to (1) get a preliminary tool-plan from Bourne and (2) try 15 minutes for each of my anxieties.

The Rest of This Summer

I'll post more about this after these next four days.

I'll update tomorrow, my friends!



*Note: No worthy brother wants to get accused of harrassment, so here are my criteria for inviting out women:

1. Not do it at work, barre, or my apartment complex.
2. Get at least three signals of unambiguous flirting.

Wow, very fine stuff

Cheering you on, Oak

Love kanopy

I found Obsessed

Your plans sound daunting honestly

That’s not discouragement!

Respect

Thank you Manuel Moe and Beany Boo. It is great to hear from you, and I hope you're both doing well.

It turns out that, instead of facing my anxieties in a structured manner during my five-day weekend, I instead pulled back.

I went to barre twice, the grocery store, and otherwise simply sat with my feelings.

Now and then, and the pandemic was the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, my soul/psyche needs time to just be.

Do I wish I had been active and direct? Yes. Did I need to rest and pull back and be quiet? Also yes.

I hope to come back to this thread's goals, maybe sometime soon. But for now, I am Enough. Thank you for sharing this journey with me.