Being bipolar, I’ve had some unreasonable fears in my life. One was of parking lots. I had this dread of going to any store where I would have to drive through a parking lot.
So, I gave myself a step-by-step guide of how to get into the parking lot and into the store. I decided which aisle of the lot I would go down, and I decided I would take the first available space regardless of how far it was from the store. When I took this approach, I maintained my sanity and accomplished my goal of getting to the store and back.
That’s just one small example. But I can relate the step-by-step approach to so much that has happened in my life like coming out of the closet, learning to live sober, accepting my mental illness, etc.