 Welcome to the Anxious Morning where each weekday morning we take a look at ideas concepts and lessons designed to help you Understand and overcome your anxiety for more information visit us at the anxious morning comm We all want and or need Support people there's no crime in having to lean on other humans sometimes So do not labor under the mistaken idea that you must never ask for help. That is simply not true Asking for help is not avoidance cheating failing or going backwards It's just being human which we are all allowed and even encouraged to be That out of the way, let's talk about how to build a good support person when it comes to anxiety recovery Imagine that we are building an anxiety recovery support robot. What code would we write to program that robot? What would we want to teach it to do so our robot would be as helpful as possible as we go about the business of getting better? Clearly our friends and family members are not robots I mean unless you are a robot yourself in which case a robot family makes perfect sense But here are some lines of code that you can feed your support people to help them help you Consider taking some time to sit with your support people to discuss these statements our lines of code So you can all come to an understanding as to how this should all work to everyone's benefit. I Am in charge of my recovery at all times. You cannot make me recover only I can do that You are not here to make me feel better. I'm learning to do that myself You're not here to do things for me. I need to learn that I am capable of doing them Please do not participate in making excuses for my avoidance and irrational fear I'm already very good at that and trying to break that habit. So do not enable it When I am struggling, please remind me that I am capable and always have been when I am afraid Please remind me that I always wind up okay no matter how I feel When I want to give up, please remind me of why I am traveling this path and doing these difficult things When all I want to talk about is how horrible this is Please remind me of my wins and my progress. I sometimes forget to acknowledge those things and this will help me Sometimes I need a hug and a shoulder to lean and or cry on can you be that for me when I need it? When I feel especially broken or like I just can't do this because nobody understands and nobody is as bad as I am Please remind me that I am not doing this alone Remind me that you are there cheering for me because sometimes I need to hear that Now this is a good start We could probably spend hours coming up with lines of code that we would use to program the ideal support recovery robot There's only so many words in a morning email and I have to head to you another zoom call So let's continue this in the comments Shall we if you're reading this as an email click the comments icon and tell me what lines of code You'd write for your support robot I would love to hear what you have to say and if you're listening to this as a podcast head on over to the anxious morning email if you'd like to participate with a comment of your own see you tomorrow if You're enjoying the anxious morning and you'd like to get a copy of the podcast delivered into your email inbox every morning Visit the anxious morning email and subscribe to the newsletter If you're listening on Apple or iTunes take a second and leave a five-star rating Maybe write a small review it really helps me out and finally if you find my work useful And you'd like to help keep it free of advertising and sponsorships You can see all the ways to support the work at the anxious truth comm slash support. Thanks so much