ACT · Baseer Maroof, LCSW
The Struggle Switch
Every hard feeling comes with a switch. See what it does.
Based on a classic ACT metaphor. The wording here is original.
The feeling
Which feeling is here?
The struggle switch
Switching off isn’t liking the feeling, wanting it, or giving up. It’s dropping the fight, so the feeling has room to rise, peak and pass.
Flip it back on and watch. Most of us live with it on without noticing.
Why this works
In ACT, “clean” pain is the natural discomfort life hands you: anxiety before something that matters, grief after a loss. “Dirty” pain is what we add by struggling with it: anxiety about the anxiety, shame about the sadness, hours of fighting a craving in our head.
We can’t always turn the clean pain down. The struggle switch is the part you get a say in.