Recovery
Maladaptive personality strategies are instinctive defense mechanisms or coping strategies. They are often the only way we know how to operate. Until we have attention brought to them, have these processes described, labeled, clarified, they feel like “just the way things are”.
Psychoeducation is critical. It creates shared descriptions for what we are doing, and brings awareness to the fact that there are other ways to be. The way you’re operating is only one way out of many to exist.
The goal of psychoeducation is not to change how you respond to your situation, but just to bring awareness to it.
Your personality is your strategy for meeting your needs in the world. Strategies are like tools — if all you have is a hammer 🔨, everything becomes a nail . What if you learn that instead of just a hammer, you have a whole tool belt. You can use your hammer any time you like, but sometimes…might a wrench work better? What about a screwdriver 🪛?
Often we feel like all we have is the one tool. Our hammer. The process of psychoeducation is to slowly bring awareness to the fact that other tools exist. For me, it was like my field of vision was narrowed on the hammer for so long, and suddenly the field opened, and I started to feel the existence of other tools.
👉 Step 1: Begin by simply noticing the strategies you have to get your needs met.
🤔 Reflection of the Day: Since the time you began this foundations course, describe a moment where you felt like an experience you had was defined or labeled through the materials?