Kidlin’s Law: Write Down Big Problems To Make Them Smaller

Huge emotional challenges, laid bare, seem more manageable and less overwhelming

Photo by cottonbro studio on Pexels

Imagine discovering something you have been doing for almost a decade based on advice you were given one time turns out to be a recognized technique with a special name around for decades. Yet that is just what happened when I researched the mental health tip I planned to share here.

It is a tip one could practise while tackling regular, practical problems, or when facing deep-rooted emotional ones. It is for the latter I utilize this.

The tip is this: to write down huge problems that seem insurmountable.

Sound too simplistic? Too obvious? Too pointless? I thought so too when my therapist revealed the technique in one of our earliest sessions in 2017. I can no longer recall the context, only that I thought little of the suggestion.

Since 2013 I had been suffering from crippling clinical depression. I had no will to live, I was beset with searing headaches, I had no appetite, I cried often, I had extreme social anxiety, I had regular panic attacks, I had horrible self-esteem, I was filled with bitter rage and frustration, I could envision no future for myself, I grappled with suicidal thoughts 24/7… and this…