This is why your emotional disorder is a gift. Because you have to practice observing yourself, you get to develop a strategy for how you’re going to relate to yourself. Because you purposely experiment with yourself in smaller moments, you have the chance to develop a much deeper confidence in yourself that can carry you at all other times in your life.

The neurological opportunity is that you have the opportunity to do the opposite to change that pattern. Not only should you do the opposite in the exact way that the avoidance is showing up, but this is why we want to think about exposure as something that is frequent, flexible, and willing. It’s just like learning to walk and then run by practicing, getting good at it, and getting reinforcement through the feeling of confidence.

Intolerance of uncertainty is the tendency to react negatively on an emotional, cognitive, and behavioral level to uncertain situations and events.

Strategic thinking means starting with acknowledging what is going well and reinforcing it with curiosity, compassion, and courage.