Small Steps, Big Changes

Living and recovering from a mental health condition can be challenging. It is not a linear journey, which inevitably leads to frustration and hardships along the way. While some of this is the nature of the beast, other parts can be managed by managing our expectations. Too often we want big changes and we want them now. Unfortunately, that is rarely how it goes. On the contrary, small steps are needed for big changes.

Small steps are how we learn. They are how we learn to walk, they are how we learned in school, and they are how we grew into the versions of ourselves that exist today. But in our on-demand world, it is easy to forget that and want big changes now. We want a handful of therapy sessions to fix us. We want anti-depressants to work like Advil does for a headache. Yet that isn’t things work.

Therapy takes weeks, months, and even years. Medication often takes a few weeks before the first effects are even starting to show up. And the maladaptive habits we may have developed as a means of dealing with out mental health challenges often aren’t going anywhere overnight either.

If your anxiety and depression has caused insomnia, you’re not going to be able to just flip a switch and sleep like a log. If your social anxiety causes you to skip social events, you aren’t going to be able to become a social butterfly overnight. And while this might not be what you want to hear, the truth is that recognizing this reality has been the small step that has helped many in their recovery.

Yet even shifting our mindset from swinging for the fences to small steps that turn into big journeys takes time. We get that. If it is something you are currently struggling with, know that we are here to help. Contact us to learn more about our peer support program and learn how you can take the next steps in your recovery journey.