Grounding

Grounding

·         Sound: Turn on loud music
Loud, jarring music will be hard to ignore. And as a result, your attention will be directed to that noise, bringing you into the present moment.

·         Touch: Grip a piece of ice
If you notice that you are slipping into a flashback or a dissociative state, hold onto a piece of ice. It will be difficult to direct your attention away from the extreme coldness of the ice, forcing you to stay in touch with the present moment.

·         Smell: Sniff some strong peppermint
When you smell something strong, it is very hard to focus on anything else. In this way, smelling peppermint can bring you into the present moment, slowing down or stopping altogether a flashback or an episode of dissociation.

·         Taste: Bite into a lemon
The sourness of a lemon and the strong sensation it produces in your mouth when you bite into it can force you to stay in the present moment.

·         Sight: Take an inventory of everything around you
Connect with the present moment by listing everything around you. Identify all the colors you see. Count all the pieces of furniture around you. List off all the noises you hear. Taking an inventory of your immediate environment can directly connect you with the present moment.

Focus Externally

Thu, 06/13/2013 - 14:25 – jb

https://socialanxietyinstitute.org/focus-externally

When we feel anxiety in any form, it is always best to switch our attention EXTERNALLY as much as possible.  Our feelings lie to us when they involve anxiety, so it's best to take our attention away from our internal anxiety feelings (take away their power) by focusing on any sounds, sights, or other external stimuli that you can think of.  If you are working at a job, try to focus on your job-related tasks, if someone is talking to you, give them your full attention.  DO NOT go internal and dwell on / try to "figure out" your anxiety feelings, because you won't come to any conclusions, and you will be in the same place you started, if not worse.

There is nothing to "figure out" about anxiety... it is just there, and it will continue to be there unless you can remove attention from it and get your mind moving in a positive / neutral direction.  Do not treat your inner anxiety feelings as telling you some "truth" about yourselves or others, or give them more credit than they deserve... they are just produced by THOUGHTS, like any other thoughts you have, and it's important that you just let them pass by without struggling with them, and gently shift your attention onto something else.

The less "importance" we can place on our anxiety feelings / thoughts, the less they will have the power to control us, and the less upset we will get by any perceived setbacks or overwhelming anxiety feelings we experience.

It's important that we be nice to ourselves, and don't get too down on ourselves for experiencing some anxiety feelings.  Everyone in the world experiences times of discomfort or anxiety at certain times in life, the only difference is that they don't analyze them so much, treat these anxiety experiences as very "important, life or death experiences" and believe that by dwelling on them they will come to some conclusions that will solve their anxiety problem.  They don't get caught in the vicious negative cycle of analysis and paralysis.  

They simply feel a little anxiety about something, accept that it was "ok" to have some anxiety, and move on with their lives, putting their attention and thoughts on other things outside themselves.

Focus externally, stay active, exercise, work out at the gym... do anything to take your attention away from anxiety, and stop fueling the fire.  Contrary to what you may believe, analysis of your inner anxiety feelings will get you NOWHERE.  It will only create more anxiety in your life, and it will become even more difficult to break free of it in the future.  Anxiety can only harm you when you focus inward and pay attention to it, so let's get our minds moving in a positive direction on some external, positive events / situations.  You WILL notice an immediate difference, and if you practice this enough, you will experience a better and brighter tomorrow.

“If there is danger, is it imminent? How much time is left for planning and problem solving if this is a threat? Do I already possess the skills necessary to cope with this threat? If so, can I relax until the threat becomes more of a danger”

When caught in the grips of anxiety, it is nearly impossible to think clearly and rationally, given that your brain is operating in pure survival mode.  Therefore, I encourage my clients to come up with a short list of anxiety fighting mantras, that they can quickly access, when in the midst of a panic attack.  Here are a few sample, anxiety fighting tips, that my fabulous clients have come up with:

• ·         When in doubt, move TOWARDS the discomfort. Avoidance feels good in the short term but only leads to more long term distress.
• ·         Just because my anxious brain says "I can't do this" does not make it true.
• ·         When all else fails, just keep putting one foot in front of the other. When in a deep, dark, overwhelming place, all I need to do is force myself to take the next tiny baby step forward.
• ·         A panic attack is a false alarm.  I AM SAFE AND SOUND AND WILL BE OK.  
• ·         I can handle this.
• ·         When feeling overwhelmed and unclear what do next, I will force myself to pick a next step and take action in the face of uncertainty. I don't need to make a "perfect" choice to move forward.
• ·         Anxiety, like all emotions, will soon pass, making way for the next.
• ·         If I am feeling anxious about something, I am probably doing something important.  If I did not care about the task, I would not be feeling anxious, I would be feeling indifferent.  
• ·         Anxiety is uncomfortable but it is not dangerous.
• ·         When anxiety shows up, I am going to remind myself, "I may not like this but I can handle this. I am allowing myself to feel this anxiety in the service of living my life to its fullest".
• ·         When in doubt, moves towards the discomfort. Freedom from anxiety does not mean living a life free of anxiety but instead living a full and meaningful life, and taking anxiety along for the ride, when it rears its annoying (but not dangerous) head.

People tend to have a greater ability to manage stressful events than they sometimes realise. Once you have identified a specific situation that is causing the anxiety, problem-solving is a useful technique to help resolve anxiety by addressing the problem. Structured problem solving involves the following steps:

1. Identify the problem. When you have identified the situations that are contributing to your anxiety, write down the problem and be very specific in your description, including what is happening, where, how, with whom, why, and what you would like to change.
2. Come up with as many options as possible for solving the problem, and consider the likely chances that these will help you overcome your problem.
3. Select your preferred option.
4. Develop a plan for how to try out the option selected and then carry it out.
5. If this option does not solve the problem remember that there are other options to try.
6. Go back to the list and select your next preferred option.

Anxiety/Panic Toolkit

Anxiety/Panic Toolkit

-Realize that primitive brain took over. Its job is to produce anxiety. Do not fight it. Do not avoid it. ACCEPT IT.
-Take your foot of the gas pedal
-Start abdominal breathing
-Completely stop all self-checking / troubleshooting (ex. “How am I feeling now?”, “Is this just like a year ago?”, “Today my day was good/bad”, “It is bad now, but later it will be better”)
-Stop fighting your body, ride the wave, let body do its thing. It is metabolizing adrenaline.
-Stop any problem-solving with primitive brain. You are blocked.
-Label, challenge and dismiss all ANTs (ticker tape, leaves down the river).  99% of thoughts in the morning are ANTs. You can't have anxiety without having anxious thoughts. ANTs are the old way of thinking, which is irrelevant now. You are thinking with primitive brain, which picks worst case scenario for survival.

-Productive worry vs. unproductive worry. Worry time
-Realize that adrenaline spike lasts only about 2 minutes and body returns to normal, unless brain keeps adding fuel to the fire
-One mindfully. Stay in the present.

-Detach and observe (Movie Theater).
-Grounding (name all objects in the room, counting backwards etc)
-Disregard any physical symptoms (headache, stomach growling, chest tightness, sluggishness, exhaustion, disturbed sleep etc). These are all related to anxiety.
-Coping statements:
Calmly tell yourself “This will pass”, “I have been through this before and nothing bad happened, it was just uncomfortable”, “I can allow my body to go through its reactions and handle this, and I’ve done it before”
-The goal is habituation and extinction, not termination
-Build on every successfully tolerated attack. Reward yourself.

-Do non judge yourself for having anxiety. It is a part of you. Self-soothe
-Half-smile
-Opposite action
-Build positive experiences (eat in favorite place, massage etc)
-Have fun. Spend time with kids. Enjoy them