turandot.livejournal.com ([identity profile] turandot.livejournal.com) wrote in [personal profile] kyburg 2011-03-01 10:06 pm (UTC)

You just have to take your hands off the wheel and let the car drive itself for a while. That's trust, but sometimes? You don't see the road well enough and the car is smarter than you are.

Having slid into anxiety fueled depression due to things like lack of employment (and other issues, but lack of employment wasn't helping, you know), I'd have to say this advice doesn't work for everybody.

If not seeing the road makes you terrified, letting the car drive itself is only going to make you feel more powerless, and will lead you to spiral into depression all the more so. You start to imagine that the shadows on the road are monsters and not shadows, because you become afraid to look (my therapist calls it the "ropes or snakes" quandary).

It's better to remind yourself that while you can't see for miles in fog, you can see in front of you, and that's all you need for a time.

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