 What if is a question anxiety loves to ask? What if is a major component in anxious thinking, especially in a state of disordered anxiety? But here's the rub. Conventional wisdom would try to teach you to flip what if it sucks into, but what if it's amazing? And that's not terribly helpful to an overtired, oversensitized, over-anxious mind that will just keep negating the positive thought replacement and will keep manufacturing catastrophic what if scenarios that it throws at you in rapid succession. So in recovery, we learn to turn what if into even if. We don't try to convince ourselves that nothing bad will happen. Instead, we accept the fact that it might and then we act to show ourselves and teach ourselves that we are capable of handling it when it does, even when it feels bad and it's scary and it's less than desired. So when your brain throws what if at you, answer with even if. Then go and show yourself that you're capable of handling the even if. It'll take the wind out of anxiety sales when you do that and it will point you down the road to recovery.