Conference time!

…Well there I am, heading to Atlanta, Georgia from California with my Aunt and Mom. I had never once been on a plane, let alone to another state. While the excitement overwhelmed me, I remember being nervous to meet new people and have to discuss my bad intrusive thoughts. As well as, the plane ride itself was going to be terrifying. I constantly heard about planes landing in the ocean, getting lost altogether, (think Bermuda Triangle.. haha), or even crash landing. So down went the Dramamine.

While I had taken a adult sized dose of Dramamine, I still stayed awake for the entire plane ride. Take off, in the air, and landing. I was not at all scared, in fact it was quite fun. My aunt and Mom did not feel the same about it. Both gripped their seats as the flight took off and landed. We arrived at the conference center at the Hilton, got our room and got settled in.

Over the next 4 days I, among others, were involved in a multitude of games, and activities to help us forget the “worry”. With most of my worries stemming around illness and germs, I was split into a similar group of peers. We then went around touching things we wouldn’t EVER touch. These included but we’re not limited to, toilet lids, door knobs, and kitchen counters.

Throughout all these activities, I was still terrified, maybe even more so. But, at the end of all the conference activities I walked away with a knowledge on how to cope. Or even how to tell myself it was just a “worry thought.” This made me such a braver person. I stopped washing my hands as much and my worrying stopped almost altogether for over a year. Or if I was worrying, it wasn’t enough to bother my daily life. This conference really saved me from falling into a deep depression as a child.