Dream Journal Ultimate
Date: 11/11/2018
By fluffytree
Just dreamt I was wandering around near my old neighborhood down by the CVS I used to work at in high school when I spotted this young girl pull into the lot driving a silver sedan. She opened her car door and began cruising slowly with her arm extended. I guess she was trying to touch every car but I'm not sure. It was really bizarre but also an act I recognized from a newsletter I read years back about how you should do absurd things like this to overcome your social anxiety. I remember not doing this specific one, but others where I would go into stores and ask for absurd things out loud like trying to order a lobster dinner in a dollar store. It was so damn cringey and painful so of course I couldn't keep it up after that one day. I did notice after the first couple times you zone out and stop caring so much though. But ultimately it won't have long-term positive effects on your anxiety unless you were to do these challenges every single day for who knows how long. Anyway I still silently commended this girl on how brave she was being. It was inspiring to see that there were other people in my city going through the same issues as me. I wanted to say hi to her but I knew how super self conscious she was feeling so I pretended I wasn't paying attention so she could finish without distractions. She left and another girl showed up doing something similar which I thought was so bizarre cos what are the odds. This girl stopped her car in the lot, then looked around to see if anyone was noticing her, and then jumped out her car while lightly jogging 50 feet behind her and then going back to the car. Anyone watching would think this is insane but I seem to be the only one who understands the motive of these social exercises. For all these type of things it's pretty much just embarrass yourself until it doesn't matter anymore. Not an approach I bother with anymore, but it's still recommended by some as a direct kind of exposure therapy for socially anxious people. Anyway I ended up waking up shortly thereafter.