This metaphor for anxiety is not original to me. I stole it from a speaker at a CBT workshop a gazillion years ago.
Hill of Anxiety
Imagine you are at the bottom of a big hill and you want to get to the other side, only there is something very scary at the top of the hill (confronting an abusive partner, for instance, or even opening up to your therapist about a secret you’re embarrassed about).
You work hard to bike up the hill, peddling with greater and greater effort, but the closer you get to the top where the scary thing is, the more anxious you become. This is a very human feeling; many times we get so anxious we just give up and go back down the hill the same way we came up.
We soon learn that retreating WORKS! Unfortunately, we are less anxious when we turn back, which just reinforces our avoidance. The problem is we still want to get to the other side, so we become frustrated (stuck).
In therapy we learn how to face our anxiety, work through it, to get to the other side where the anxiety not only lowers, we have moved forward. This idea is so much a part of what Explore What’s Next is all about you can see the slope of a grassy hill in our logo. Contact us today!
Photo by Matt Duncan
Words about climbing the hill of anxiety
Elvira G. Aletta, PhD, Founder & CEO
Executive & Personal Coaching, Individual & Relationship Counseling
Life gave Dr. Aletta the opportunity to know what it’s like to hurt physically and emotionally. After an episode of serious depression in her mid-twenties, Dr. Aletta was diagnosed with a rare kidney disease that relapsed throughout her adulthood. While treatable, the cure was often as hard to bear as the disease. Later she was diagnosed with scleroderma, another chronic illness.
Throughout, Dr. Aletta battled with anxiety. Despite all this, Dr. Aletta wants you to know, you can learn to engage in life again on your terms.
Good therapy helped Dr. Aletta. She knows good therapy can help you. That’s why she created Explore What’s Next.
Today Dr. Aletta enjoys mentoring the EWN therapists, focusing on coaching and psychotherapy clients, writing and speaking. She is proud and confident that Explore What’s Next can provide you with therapists who will help you regain a sense of safety, control and joy.
716.308.6683 | draletta@explorewhatsnext.com
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