Previously I'd had this grocery store analogy for recovery and change in worldview.
Let's say you can get to two grocery stores, and one has better products, and a better diversity, for cheaper - but it's further away. Once you have a bike, car or even sturdier bags to carry on the bus, you can save money and feel far healthier.
Maybe eating better helps you bike further, maybe saving money helps you get a car so getting there's no problem -- but if you don't get a bike, car, or sturdy bags through sheer luck you're stuck with the nearer store, which means you can't actually get those things. the crappy option *keeps* you locked into the crappier option for years.
re: Previously I'd had this grocery store analogy for recovery, today I came up with an analogy for learned hopelessness
Learned hopelessness analogy;
Suppose moving forward in life is a bridge. Maybe it's a suspension bridge high over nothing, or it's a floating bridge bobbing up and down on a lake. That's a little intimidating, and then add in - the bridge narrows, there's wind or water moving it, and sometimes other people will barrel right by and make it sway scarily with their actions.
The worst, of course, is if someone intentionally tries to scare you by jumping up and down, such that afterwards eveyone who shakes the bridge parses as doing it intentionally.
Isn't hunkering down in place and not moving forward - or crawling forward as slowly and carefully as possible - a pretty reasonable response to stuff this scary? Which of course doesn't really help in the long run (you want to get off the bridge).
