Last week, we taught you about The Avoidance Cycle and Fix-Its. You learned why avoidance behaviors and fix-its might help us feel less anxious at first, but won't help us overcome our anxieties in the long run.
This week, you will learn about facing your fears by using what we call “mission plans”!
You will spend about 30 - 45 minutes reading, watching cartoons, and doing activities with your parent.
Anxiety is Normal
Remember that anxiety helps keep us safe from danger. Anxiety can be a problem if you are too scared or if you get scared when you do not need to be. Everyone will experience anxiety at some point in their life. The goal of LUNA is to help you feel less anxiety and do things without getting frightened too much!
Running away from your anxiety
Avoidance vs. Exposure
Sometimes when we are afraid of something, it can seem like the best thing to do is to run away so that we can stop feeling scared. But this can actually hurt us in the long run!
For example, Neil is terrified of the dark. He has to sleep with the lights fully on in his room, and he calls out for his mom if he needs to leave his room at nighttime. Whenever Neil tries to sleep with the lights off, he cries and runs to his mom’s room. Neil is running from the darkness every night. If Neil never faces his fear of the dark, he will keep having to sleep with the lights on, even as an adult! He might also never be able to do some fun things with friends, like tell stories in the dark at sleepovers or play hide and seek.
At Astronaut Academy, Neil’s teachers are worried that he will not be able to sleep in the spaceship with only a nightlight, so they are not allowing him to go to space yet.
Every time Neil runs away from the dark, his fear grows. You might have noticed that this has happened with some of your anxieties, too! The more you run away from your anxiety, the stronger the anxiety gets. What Neil does not know is that he actually can face his fears!