The Importance of Small Steps

The Importance of Small Steps

We live in an age of instant gratification. If I want to know what the temperature is in Atlanta, who scored the most homeruns in the last major league ball game in Cincinnati, or what is the cost of a plane ticket to Chicago, all I have do is google it on my phone or my computer. If someone asks a question that I do not know, I can usually find the answer within minutes thanks to AI. We are used to having information literally at our fingertips. 

So what happens when we try to make changes in our life such as recovering from a mental or physical illness or if we are trying to make major changes in the environment around us? Reaching these or similar goals do not happen instantaneously. I do not know of anyone who took one dose of a prescribed medication for schizophrenia, depression, or bipolar disorder and suddenly their symptoms disappeared. Usually psychotropic medications must accumulate in your body to reach a therapeutic level. Even finding the right medication that will improve mental health symptoms is often a trial and error. What may work for one person, may not work for another. The first medication may not be the one that will be most effective, and sometimes several different trials are necessary to find what may work best. If we are expecting instant gratification, this process can be discouraging. 

Few people can stand at the bottom of a set of stairs and leap to the top in a single bound! Most mental health  changes take time and may involve many steps along the way to reach recovery. To avoid being discouraged and to remain hopeful, recognizing these smaller steps toward improvement can be helpful. The first step may be just recognizing the need for help and therapeutic intervention. Then finding the treatment team that will work best for you is another step and you haven't even started medications or psychotherapy. During this process each step that you take brings you closer to the top. Some days you may get stuck or feel like you are moving down and not up, but each experience allows you to learn what will work and what won't. Scientists and inventors find that even experiences that may seem like “failures” provide valuable learning that propels continued upward movement. Focus on what you are learning about yourself and your symptoms, not how fast you are moving. Celebrate the steps that you have made, appreciate what you have learned and accomplished, and remind yourself that others have climbed similar steps.