How bad you feel is not a measurement of how much you are doing

This is the most useful single fact in the lesson and it takes some care to say properly.

There is a body of research on what happens when a person believes something is wrong and does it anyway. The finding is not that religious people are mistaken to disapprove, and nothing here is telling you that your belief is the problem. The finding is narrower and more useful than that.

It is that distress and behaviour are two separate variables, and they come apart. A person can be in enormous distress about a small amount. Another can be in very little distress about a great deal.

Which means the intensity of what you feel is not a reading of how serious your situation is. You have almost certainly been using it as one. Those two questions need separate answers, and lesson six is where the second one gets answered properly.