ABSTRACT
This exercise is to draw attention to and encourage participants to consider, and if necessary improve, their support systems for those times when life is extremely hard. A good support system will include people they can call on to listen and support them when the going gets tough. If people have a poor support system, when they feel frightened, anxious or depressed they tend to turn to self-help, which often makes them feel worse. In fact, a lot of self-help involves health-harming behaviours such as drinking or eating too much or actual self-harm. This is because, whether we like it or not, we are programmed as social animals. In fact, research shows that loneliness is as lethal to health as smoking fifteen cigarettes a day (Holt-Lunstad et al., 2015). What’s more, research shows that superficial texting and emails don’t help feelings of isolation, as they lack emotional depth (Holt-Lunstad et al., 2015); we need to make a more substantial connection. An advertisement once read, “Would you treat your body like a Hertz rented car?” People with poor support systems tend to treat themselves worse than they would ever dream of treating someone else or even their car! To run well, cars need regular servicing and repair or they seize up. So do we!
