Homework Assignment Part 2

Question: How can I develop more trust with other people and develop a bigger support system?

Answer: I can develop a bigger support system by making friends with more people in different areas of my life. There are different groups of friends in one's life: people at work or school, people from church, neighbors, people from special interest groups like a writing group, etc. So my plan is to try to have/make two or three good friends from each group (instead of my 3 or 4 good friends period). By "good" friends I mean people I will actually talk to and open up to instead of being just acquaintances. Then I'm going to make a list of those friends and their phone numbers and put them in my self-journal that I will carry around everywhere that also contains my goals and calendars and stuff.

Which brings us to the trust part. I don't really know that there's an easy cure for expecting people to attack you or abandon you at the drop of a hat besides experience. Experience taught me that some people can and will lash out for no particularly obvious reason, but I've also had some really good friends who have had plenty of opportunities to hurt me and haven't. Soooo, if I have lots of good experiences with friends then maybe I will get over that fear, which is something that will never happen if I hide inside all day.