Caroline Foran

I was so frightened that I believed I'd willed myself into that horrible place that I was like, well, I'm just going to lose my mind then.

Like it was petrifying.

And I so wanted someone to say, no, this makes sense.

And this is why.

And I didn't get that.

And of course, like all of that just made it so much worse.

I blame myself so much more.

And

It's not that we talk about like being kind to ourselves and stuff.

And I used to be like, oh, whatever.

Like if that worked, I would have done that by now and be a bit eye rolly and stuff.

But for me, when I actually look at the neuroscience of what's happening in our bodies, when like when I was being self-critical.

after having a very strong wave of anxiety or pretty much all the time I think from what I understand now because like I said our brains when we're anxious are looking for some kind of action or certainty the action that my anxiety felt it could do was to like turn on myself and try and motivate myself out of the funk I was in with tough love by saying come on like get a grip you can't like this is ridiculous you can't be so weak you need to be stronger and

And all of what I thought would help me actually just poured more petrol on an anxious system.

Like it actually triggers, it keeps the cycle of anxiety going.

You're launching an attack on yourself.

You're launching more stress hormones.

You're actively feeding an anxiety cycle.

And we don't know that.

Like we need to realize that it's not just, oh, don't be so hard on yourself.