Most of us know the feeling. That voice inside our heads telling us we’re wrong. Lazy. Stupid. Not trying hard enough. Hurting others. Selfish. Overly sensitive.
This is not an autistic thing. I’m sure everyone feels that way on occasion.
And we don’t deserve to.
The Point, Counterpoint, Actual Point project is a collaborative blog series asking us to re-examine the ways in which we believe we’re not good enough, to reduce self-doubt and promote acceptance of ourselves. For some background, you can read the post that kicked off the project on the blog notesoncrazy.com.
© Veronica Foale – Flickr.com
Sounds good, don’t you think? And you can participate. All you need to do is write something in the following format.
POINT: A thing you believe about yourself or want to believe about yourself if you can be very honest.
COUNTERPOINT: All the self-talk and messages from other people that lead you to doubt yourself.
ACTUAL POINT: The evidence you have for your original belief. It can be internal or external, conclusive or just suggestive. What matters is that it lets you trust yourself.
CONCLUSION: Your original point, “and that’s ok.”
To get it published, choose one of the following options:
- Submit your Point, Counterpoint, Actual point on the project website theactualpointproject.com.
- Email it to notesoncrazy@gmail.com and include how you would like to be credited: anonymous, with a pseudonym and/or link to your blog, or with your name.
- Post it on your own blog, with a link to the project.
- Post it on Facebook or Tumblr or Twitter (well, 140 characters would make you the master of succinctness, but go ahead!). Or wherever.
Your choice. Because this isn’t about the project. It’s about you.
It’s time to let go of those voices inside our heads.
Contributions so far:
- Actual Point #1: I Have Prosopagnosia
- Actual Point #2: I Want To Be A Parent
- Actual Point #3: I Did The Right Thing
- Actual Point #4: I Like Sex
- Actual Point #5: Those Are Scars
- Actual Point #6: I Am Autistic
- Actual Point #7: I Am A Woman
- Actual Point #8: I Know Lots of Random Things
- Actual Point #9: People Want Me Around
- Actual Point: I Am An Introvert
Or browse all submissions to the Point, Counterpoint, Actual Point project.
...autisticook 
I’m in that place right now 😦
I’m sorry to hear that. 😦
We’re our own worst critics sometimes. I hope you can find it in your heart to be gentle with yourself.
It’s a challenge when there’s enough “reality” in the judgement to make it hard to argue with yourself about it. Sigh.
Thanks for sharing about this project. I think I have an idea in mind since so much of the process of managing my anxiety has been centered around this practice. I’ve had plenty of conversations with myself about what evidence I have to challenge my inner critic (for she is fierce).
You’re welcome! I love reading all the contributions. It’s such an awesome project. Looking forward to reading yours if you get around to writing it!
It’s finals week at school, so I have a feeling I’ll probably be using writing that entry as reinforcement for completing a section on one of my papers.
I love these! I have been reading all of them and I look forward to reading more.
i have a bit of a RL multiple voices in my head situation too, right now. i don’t think i can post about it but it’s a very valid approach, just writing it down for yourself. x
this is so awesome! countering shame this way is really powerful. 🙂
Need to think about this. There are actually several issues I need to face that I do not face because it’s easier to say “I am lazy” than recognize that anxiety is paralyzing me in some areas…
We all know how disabling anxiety can be. I hope you will write something as well!