Managing my Anxiety/Depression Crisis; ignoring the thoughts
Good morning!
This is one of the tools that I use to go through my little crisis that I still get here & there, either from my Depression or Anxiety. This is definately something that i’ve created overtime, just like my dual thinking method, that I can’t really pinpoint where it even came from.. It’s just one of the more “advanced” things that popped probably after Therapy, and I realized that’s what I was doing after reading «First, we make the beast beautiful».
Ofcourse, this only really work with the more mental spirals – thoses where you are aware of your spiralling, which makes things worst because you *know* that’s what you’re doing, but you can’t stop the thoughts.. opposed to the most physicals responses where it might not work as much.
The way my crisis pops is more like mental spiralling, i’ve only gotten physical symptoms a few times; the most of mines happening in my head. Sure, I feel a pressure on my chest, but from a standing out point of view, you might not actually realise it’s what’s happening as I still look “fine & normal”; i’m not hyperventilating nor do I look nervous from something. (opposed to when i’d get overwhelmed at work and start talking out loud to myself to calm down)
Think of the thoughts like boxes; you might not be the one controlling what’s inside them, as that’s anxiety and not YOU that’s thinking them, but you sure can control if you open said boxes or not. From there, you can just choose to ignore & not open the boxes.. just let them come to you, accept them, but choose not to do anything with it.
Most often, we might feel guilty & like what we are thinking (which can be awful things) are our faults.. which does make everything worse. This is not the case; your disorder is the one thinking them, and is very much lying to you. That’s very important, remember that.
We know things will be okay again; you are safe. this doesn’t invalidate your progress. You can be recovered/being on the good path of recovery and still get a few crisis here & there.. that’s absolutely normal. This is just a momentary wave you gotta sail, nothing more, your sun will come out again ❤️
For me, they ironically shows up in the middle of the night- so realistically, there’s not much I can do with them anyway. I just lay in my bed, and focus on listening to music.. or maybe i’d play a little game along with the music; something you don’t gotta think too much about like maybe animal crossing, or some farm simulation, or even sims. And you just wait for the storm to pass, very important to not give into the thoughts.
What tools help you when you get a crisis?
Were you using this method aswell?