4. Identify the payoffs for the decision. Even extreme unhappiness--chronic clinical depression--can have real payoffs: release you from responsibilities, gain you attention from others, allow you to return to the comfort of childhood dependency, etc. Anxiety can give you good reasons for {171} disqualifying yourself from stressful situations and reinforce your belief that you cannot cope. 5. What are your alternatives to the behavior that is causing a problem? It is often hard to see that you are _not_ really trapped in a state of unhappiness. There are always alternatives. 6. Choose your alternative and put it into practice. Trust yourself. "[H]appy people have a sense that whatever happens, things will eventually work out. In short, they trust themselves to react in their own best interest."[10] 7. Support yourself in carrying out your decision. Habits die slowly. You must be patient. Your decision has to be made over and over again, just as an overweight person who loves food must decide again and again to say "No" to this dessert today, the baked potato tomorrow. Gradually, the strength of your decision builds as _you_ build strength into it. [9] Greenwald and Rich, _The Happy Person_, p. 29. [10] Greenwald and Rich, _The Happy Person_, p. 29. APPLICATIONS OF DIRECT DECISION THERAPY As we have seen, direct decision therapy is based on the assumption that you are _able_ to begin to exercise self-discipline and that you are _willing_ to give up the real payoffs that being emotionally troubled frequently does achieve. These interrelated things--ability and willingness to change--simply are not present in many people who enter therapy. They come to therapy for a variety of other, often unconscious, reasons: for temporary comforting, for escape from an upsetting situation or environment, or for a chance to release painful feelings and to express painful thoughts. Clients come in order to procrastinate; they come to prove to themselves that they simply _can't_ change and that the therapist just isn't good enough. They come out of anger, frustration, despair. But comparatively few enter therapy because they really are persuaded they _can_ change and are committed to bringing change about. These people are unquestionably the most promising candidates for _any_ approach to psychotherapy. Clients who come to therapy for other reasons make up the daily challenge and the daily frustration, concern, worry, and hope of the therapist. The therapist believes that, in time, and with proper treatment, {172} people who are imprisoned within walls of their own habits can rally the determination and faith to tear them down and to gain a measure of personal freedom.