Joanne Smith says lingering symptoms don't mean you're failing at recovery. Progress is about showing up consistently, not eliminating symptoms. Most brains stay protective for years, so treat healing as a marathon with small, gentle shifts and self-kindness.
You may have done everything the way that you could have done no better, but even still, you may still experience symptoms. And that's the point when I say keep going, keep doing what you're doing, and just understand that it's really not a good measure of your success. And please know that It doesn't mean that you're not going to get there and you're not going to make a recovery just because you're having the symptoms. We just got to play the long game. Like, you have to be willing to play the long game. For some people, their brain has been in protection mode, me being one of those people, for years and years and years, decades, decades, um, maybe, maybe a lifetime. So it's, for some people, amazing if it's able to switch off very quickly, but for many people, it is about consistency and not about perfection, and it just is about gentle approach, just small shifts over and over, kindness to yourself, no harsh judgments, just gentle self-compassion.
