The Good Place’s take on morality is so important to me. It never suggests that being good is easy or straightforward - quite the opposite - but it says, over and over again, that we need to try because we’re all people and we all matter.
I hate when people tell me to feel blessed for being born in america i hate when im obligated to be patriotic like this country is literally trying to kill people like me and i have to jump through hoops just trying to get people to believe im deserving of living.
Disclaimer: I have done years of DBT to get to where I am, where I can even do this with regular emotions. This is meant as an idea to practice when possible, which may be rare for you depending on severity of your symptoms and the situation at hand.
We all know paranoia is a bear to deal with. Using Opposite Action (OA) helps me to behave more normally so that I can maintain relationships and avoid reinforcing the paranoia while delusional.
Some months ago, prior to being diagnosed and treated, I was convinced I am actually a fake person and someone was pursuing me because I had figured it out. This meant everything was dangerous–food, my antidepressants, anything could be poisoned or set to destroy me somehow.
The basic premise of OA says, act oppositely so as to not reinforce the feeling. This means being kind when angry, and pushing yourself to be active when sad. Applied to paranoia, it means facing the fear head on.
Something very helpful to me was logging every time I used OA, so I could see I’d been poisoned zero out of X times I used it. This helped me use it more over time.
My fear of poisoned food was a serious social hindrance (not to mention physically dangerous) and to use OA, I had to mindfully accept that I could die. This was, of course, terrifying. Every dinner with family, every time I took my meds, I was just waiting to drop dead for the sake of not reinforcing this emotion. Again, logging it helped me feel more confident in the risk I was taking.
So why do it? Well, to be around loved ones. My support system. Food has always been the center of our gatherings, and I needed to be able to participate. I needed reason to carry on, things to live for, something to look forward to. I needed my meds.
It’s harder than just using OA for typical emotions, because the stakes feel so much higher. But this has been key in my ability to function through delusional states. It helps me doubt myself, even if just a little bit. I get support and love. I don’t starve. OA has been the greatest skill I’ve used in that kind of condition.
