Comment by dubeye
3 days ago
I assume there must be a finite amount of anxiety from sole cafe trips.
I'm probably an above averagely anxious person, but after a few trips without disaster, it becomes a non issue.
3 days ago
I assume there must be a finite amount of anxiety from sole cafe trips.
I'm probably an above averagely anxious person, but after a few trips without disaster, it becomes a non issue.
> after a few trips without disaster
100%.
Exposure therapy is the cure for anxiety. I have a personal hunch that part of the massive rise in anxiety in the world is explained by many of us no longer being regularly forced outside of our comfort zones. Before the Internet and smartphones, we were obligated to go into the unknown much more often. It was a constant mandatory exposure therapy.
Today, I can't remember the last time I walked into a restaurant without already having seen the inside on Google Maps, read several reviews on Yelp, and perused the menu online.
> Exposure therapy is the cure for anxiety.
Except when it is not. Exposure can make an autistic person's anxiety worse.
Pretty sure the exposure makes _everyone's_ anxiety worse at the start, that is part of the point.
2 replies →
I didn't say "exposure", I said "exposure therapy". A good therapy is designed with the patient in mind.
Interesting. Even when nothing bad happens? It has always worked for me.
And multiply by dinner eating. Which I have done solo many hundreds of times between business and other travel. Not something I think twice about. In fact, at conferences, I've sometimes been peopled-out by the end of the day and actively avoided going out of my way to setup group dinners unless they came together organically.