Instead of avoiding our anxieties, we need to face our fears to overcome them. Psychologists have a fancy word for this strategy: Exposure. Up to this point, you’ve learned a lot about anxiety and started practicing how to cope with it, but it is not enough to just think or talk about your anxieties, or even figure out ways to cope with anxiety. At some point, you need to face what is giving you anxiety, and this is where exposure comes in. As you face your anxieties, a lot of the time, you slowly get used to them. Science has shown us this is the most important thing to do to feel less anxious, so it will be the biggest part of LUNA.
Exposure works because it helps you:
- Get used to your fears
- Learn that what you are afraid of probably won’t happen, or if it does happen, that you can handle it
- Believe in yourself
- Learn how to handle stress
- Live your life the way you want!
Don't worry, you will not start with your biggest anxiety right away. You would not expect an astronaut to go to space on their first day – they need to train! You will also be training, using what we call mission plans. These plans allow you to face your fears slowly, bit by bit. A mission plan has many activities that will help you reach your goals and face your fears. Sally’s Mission Plan is to face her fears of being rejected if she talks to new people. This might look like:
| Step |
Anxiety Rating 0-10 OR Easy - Medium - Hard |
Reward / Brave Bucks |
| Sally asks her good friend Joana to borrow a pencil |
2 |
1 brave buck |
| Sally asks her classmate, Rita, who she does not know well, to borrow a pencil |
3 |
2 brave bucks |
| Sally sits next to Rita during lunch |
4 |
3 brave bucks |
| Sally texts Rita a funny meme |
5 |
4 brave bucks |
| Sally makes friendly chat with Rita during breaks |
6 |
6 brave bucks |
| Sally asks Rita if she wants to meet at the mall to hang out |
7 |
7 brave bucks |
| Sally asks Rita if she wants to come over to her house to watch a movie together |
7 |
7 brave bucks
|
| Sally invites Rita for a sleepover |
8 |
8 brave bucks |
| Sally joins the rest of Rita's friends during lunch and makes conversation with the group |
10 |
10 brave bucks |
Sally created this mission plan with her mom. She is going to practice activities in her mission plan every day. Sometimes she will try the same activity over again, and sometimes she will mix it up, trying different exposure activities she feels ready for, until she is ready for the last, most challenging one. Every time she tries her best to complete an activity in her mission plan, she will get a reward!
Identifying when you are anxious and the coping tools that you learned earlier are going to help you in this journey. In the next section, you will learn how to put together your own mission plan. You have everything you need to face your fears. Good luck! You can do this!
