Lived Experience Forum

[Jynx]

Yeah do it @JPEG1998! That's a lovely lil compliment 😁

[JPEG1998]

Hey @Jynx ,

I'll try and email a peer support worker now 🙂

[tyme]

Good on you @JPEG1998 

We will wait to hear how that goes for you!

[JPEG1998]

@Jynx 

Email has now been sent to the correct address 🙂 

[JPEG1998]

Hey @Jynx and @tyme ,

Bumped into them yesterday, but they didn't see me.

[tyme]

Hey @JPEG1998 ,

What are your next steps? I'm interested to hear 🙂 

Hope you are okay.

[Jynx]

Hey @JPEG1998 

Ach, missed like ships in the night! Ahh well, next time eh? 

How've been otherwise?

[JPEG1998]

@tyme @Jynx 

I've got a peer support appointment with ReachOut soon, so I'll discuss this further with the counsellor 🙂

I feel OK at the moment. But I am feeling a bit uncomfortable with complimenting them on their smile. I really think that I should do it, but what if other people are around, and what if he doesn't appreciate it? 😞

[tyme]

Super! I'm glad you can speak to someone from ReachOut! @JPEG1998 All the best with it. Have you written anything down that you want to talk about?

[Jynx]

Yes indeed, what if those things happen @JPEG1998? Sometimes with anxiety, I find it helpful to follow it all the way to its conclusion. 

What if people are judging me? 

Then perhaps they won't like me, and maybe we wouldn't end up as friends. It would probably hurt. And then I would eventually heal from that hurt and move on. 

What if I get rejected? 

Again, it would probably hurt a lot. But I've survived every single time I've been rejected in the past, so I can do it again. 

Oversimplified a bit but can help to question your anxiety and decide whether the thing it is trying to protect us from is really as bad as it makes it out to be. If people judge us and reject us, quite simply they were never our people to begin with, and thus it is not really a loss, because we can then focus on finding the people who accept us for who we are. 

Maybe this will help you like it helped me: