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.
-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.
-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.
-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
-Half-smile
-Opposite action
-Build positive experiences (eat in favorite place, massage etc)
-Have fun. Spend time with kids. Enjoy them
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