loved one: sorry, i can’t hang out! i have plans with other people
my hellbrain’s instincts: wow you love them more tha-
me, ignoring her and working on being a better person: that’s okay! i hope you have fun! can we hang out some other time?
I love this bc it’s a little snapshot of what the intermediate stage of recovery/treatment/growth can look like.
It might not be what you expect. I think people want to stop having those thoughts immediately, and if they can’t they feel that they’ve failed. But that’s not true! Challenging those old thought patterns is exactly what recovery looks like
you’ve heard of mom friends now get ready for: Anti-mom friend. they suggest every single impulsive thought that runs thru their head like “hey what if you jumped in that pond in the middle of the night” to the group while the mom friend begs them to stop