SAFETY FIRST A Final Word
The goal of this section is to encourage you to develop a daily practice of living SAFETY FIRST! In any situation, with any people, facing all kinds of choices or decisions, you always want to start with your SAFETY FIRST! plan, both to evaluate potential dangers and to identify useful and appropriate coping mechanisms for the situation.
The more you can incorporate your SAFETY FIRST! plan into your life, the more you will eliminate the kinds of setbacks that plague so many survivors (and that probably plagued you as well). You can then focus your energy on creative recovery efforts and reduce self-sabotaging behavior. In so doing, you will begin to experience the stability that is so essential for healthy functioning. Any or all of these strategies might be part of your SAFETY FIRST! plan, along with many other options you have identified for yourself.
Whatever your SAFETY FIRST! plan, it is important that you adopt it as part of your daily life. The more you do this, the more you will internalize a sense of safety that non-survivors take for granted. From this foundation of SAFETY FIRST!, your recovery can proceed, bringing with it the development of a new self capable of creating the kind of life that you long for..
Now return to the ‘first step’ section and take your recovery safely, one step at a time.