Emotion Exposure Preparation
I chose to bring my daughter's picture. Right. So go ahead and write that in. And, then what about those automatic thoughts? What are some of the thoughts that you have about doing this exposure? What are the things that are coming up for you right now? Right at this moment? Yeah. So you said you were feeling a little anxious about it.
What's anxious? Well, I'm a little anxious. You said you were feeling anxious about it. I'm anxious about what I'm gonna feel. Okay. Write that down. Yeah. And what is it that you're concerned you're going to feel? Said. And why would that be so bad? Because that I shouldn't feel sad.
She's still here. She hasn't died. Right. Those are important thoughts, very important thoughts. That thought right there, of I feel sad and I shouldn't. That's that judgment we were talking about. Right, about about the sadness. Are there other thoughts like that about how you're going to feel or the idea that you shouldn't feel a certain way? It just makes me also feel like it's not just a sadness. It makes me feel anxious, not knowing what she's doing if someone's taking care of her.
Mhmm. Okay. She doesn't have a monitor close to her. Right. In doing this, you're you're worried that can sort of bring up that anxiety as well. Yes. Yeah. So you'll feel anxious. Mhmm. This is very good. And it sounds like a number of the thoughts that you're describing here are really about how you're going to feel. You know? So I don't wanna feel it. Right. I don't wanna feel anxious. I don't wanna feel sad. Right? It's interesting because this situation, you know, there's nothing that could really hurt you about the picture.
Right? It's not like a a a threat in terms of you know, something bad's gonna happen to you other than the emotion. And so that's what we're really focusing on right now is the emotion that you're gonna experience.