Caroline Foran

And I think what kept me stuck for so long and where I think people go wrong, totally understandable, is this idea that we can think our way or will our way out of it when anxiety is actually so much of a...

an expression like a physiological expression of our body it's not like anxiety anxious thoughts that come up like I hate this message that says like you are what you think because I think it makes people feel so responsible for the scary thoughts they have when actually a lot of them are automatic and they don't have to be attached to your identity or your personality yes

And if I was told, well, you are what you think, I was like, well, I can't stop thinking this way and I don't mean this.

And then you start the self-blame triggers because you're like, I'm doing this to myself.

You're branding yourself.

I'm willing this on myself.

No.

Thoughts can come and go when your brain is so worn down and when the part of your brain that can help to rationalize and tell everything like we're good, we're safe, we're okay here.

When that part is so worn out because you've been stressed or strained for so long, it can't show up the way it normally would.

Then all your thoughts are going to become tinged with fear.

And all your thoughts, then anxiety is going to be there as a background hum in a sensitive system like yours or mine.

And we think that those thoughts are something we're choosing to have.

And I think it's really I think we have to be so careful to understand that a lot of our thoughts are automatic and it's not the presence of the thoughts that matters, but what you do with them.

I would say, I'd say it was a full year.

Because you left your job.

Yeah.

Yeah.

I remember you said that to me.

I physically couldn't get into like into work.

I couldn't.