Self Care

Self Care is a new concept for me, and I am starting to like making use of it as I find out more.

Like today, I wrote an email to my T and felt very anxious when I was about to send it, I decided not to send it and instantly felt better. I will try to talk about what was in it, in session instead. I feel even more better at that thought.

My question is: What things do you do for self care?
It can be in any situation. I am eager to have more suggestions on ways to deal with emotions and take care of myself better.

Self care is to avoid being around people or circumstances that would stress you out and trigger you. On here if certain people stress you out you can put them on your ignore list. Or in chat you can put them on ignore so what they are sharing does not affect you emotionally. That is a nice way of self care. Everyone in here is nice but there are so many conflicting MIs that they are bound to aggrevate one another. I think what you did, but not doing what you felt uncomfortable about was a wonderful example of self care... blessings

Yes, I have made use of the Ignore option or leaving Chats on occasion as a form of self care. It does help.

I am also interested in Self Care in life. What do people do to take care of them selves, deal with triggers or overwhelming emotions, etc. ?

hmm, ok. Any resources of suggestions then?

Interesting. Does no one do self care?

I always took self care to mean something different - as in looking aafter the physical aspects of one's life (hygene, house cleaning, etc). I suppose it could also mean not putting yourself in the position of being affected by things and people that might be triggers. Thinking about it, that is an impossibilty for myself to do.

It does seem to include the important mundane stuff, like hygiene and managing your money, but the kind of Self Care I'm talking about is when you are overwhelmed, triggered, upset. What things do you, or can one do?

I know removing myself from a situation is one. Others I can think of that I have learned recently:
-take a walk
-do a breathing exercise
-distract myself
-and one I've been thinking about today: Remember not to believe everything you think.

I take my meds psych and others as prescribed. I'm dxed with diabetes2 too. I get help from professionals. I get support too from support groups including this one. Many are on Facebook. They include Tourettes groups. Dxed by a neuro with Tourettes. Read self help books especially on healthy eating, nutrition. Most importantly I follow what they say. One psych self help book I read and really like. "Learned Optimism" M. SeligmanPhd. Penn Proff. of Pych. Very basically says your attitude is important.

Thanks Mugwort2! Those are all good suggestions, I appreciate you sharing

When I worked with caregivers we used to give examples of self-care, such as taking time out for yourself, relaxation, social time.

We also used to acknowledge that some people feel guilt when they do nice things for themselves which may stop them from doing so, and explore with them the reasons they may feel guilty and the outcomes of not practicing self-care as opposed to doing so. Not surprisingly care-givers who don't practice self-care are far more likely to suffer burnout than those who do, and reach a crisis point. I think that's the same for everyone not just care-givers. Self-care is very important for ourselves and those around us.

I think for me it's a case of being kind to myself, treating myself as I would a friend. Some personal examples:

1) Regular exercise
2) Eating nutritious meals
3) Relaxation - a soak in a bubble bath
4) Social time with friends who lift my spirits
5) Practicing mindfulness

Good luck with your self-care BA.

long ago, when i was first Dx with panic disorder, i was taught a little list of things to do, and they boiled down to this, for me :

Delay~ Defer~ (put off) Distract~

by using these skills instead of just leaping into my first choice or reflex, i was able to reduce the escalation of anxiety and consequences.

there is a post in the emotions forum on Coping Skills. i consider them the first line of defense in emotional self care. they came from various sources, so there is something there for just about anyone. here's a link:

http://forums.psychcentral.com/copin...ml#post4274286

congrats on learning the importance of self-care~!
may you have success and the causes of success~

Thanks Gus1234U and prefabsprout! I appreciate the tips and link

I, contrary to you, lost the concept of self care a while ago. But when I cared for myself, I was eating healthy (mostly vegetables and fruits), I was exercising 5 hours a week in the gym, I was reading informative books mostly about science and political science, and was committed to my work.

I usually take time to write my thoughts in a journal. I don't know if you're anything of a Harry Potter fan, but there was this magical device used in the later books to store thoughts and memories and recall them at will at a later day and time. This device was called a Penseive. I liken my journal to that of a Penseive in that I can store my thoughts and ideas in a safe place, and choose when I can go back and reread them. I find my head is much clearer after journaling. Like, beforehand, all my thoughts were a jumbled mess, much like a multicar pileup on a busy freeway. Horns honking, metal crunching, people yelling, all in one huge cacophony that dominated my mind. After writing, it's like the freeway accident has cleared and everything can run smoothly and thoughts can get processed easier and with more efficiency.

So yeah, that's what I do for self care, that and maybe take a nice long hot bath and just soak my worries away for the time being.

I am at the very beginning of learning my triggers to self care myself from. I have always thought of myself as a runner when situations occur that was a trigger, and this response was seen and taken negatively which only made matters worse. I have learned to express to people when I have had as much as I can take and need time to process. I use the phrase "BUCKLE UP FOR TAKE OFF" One it lightens the mood and its not offensive, and I chose it. It is something small to some but a HUGE step towards caring for me.....

Self-care for me means a lot of things. Sometimes it's just making sure I'm getting enough rest, eating well, taking care of myself (showering, etc), tending to sickness, and getting enough quality "me" time (meditation, journaling, reading), because my job can easily suck the life right out of me if I'm not paying attention to these basic things. Once my basic needs are met, I make sure I'm getting enough socialization.Then I move it up to treating myself by getting a massage, mani/pedi, taking myself to a movie, haircut, etc. This is all interchangeable; it's not like, a leveling up kinda thing. But if I'm not taking care of my basic needs, doing any of the other things aren't going to help me out, much.

I've been EFT tapping when upset or if I want to have a good day. Weirdly it works more often than not. At first I thought it looked pretty out there but gave it a try bc I heard so many people say it works. There's lots of free you tube videos for various reasons.

I do that every so often, too.

Is this the tapping your talking about?

Yep! I didn't watch the whole video but the tapping points I saw looks like what I've done.

I make things to take with me. So I have a comfort box How to make a comfort box - Mental Illness Mouse
And a smaller version in a bag that I can take with me when I travel.
As well as dream boards The Reason Vision Boards Work and How to Make One
For different purposes.
I find that making them soothes me and makes me feel like I'm protecting myself for the future.
And l like to visit churches and read spiritual things and pray. I have things like prayer stones and stuff - for some reason, I tend to need an object. Helps me focus. I've starting taking vials of menthol with me when I stay in hotels overnight. Discovering how much calming effects scent can have......

What a great question - I am always looking for new, more effective ways to manage emotions/ride out the tough times; I'll look forward to going through the replies, seeing the new ones as they come in.

I like things I can access anywhere - work, school, etc - so many are simple.

Using DBT has been a literal life saver for me. I was so lucky to have 2 go-rounds of DBT training through county mental health, and it was a god send!
I built a virtual skills card, and also skill flash cards, that I can review/complete/refer to when I need some help.

Keeping attuned to my body and moods has also been pretty essential. I use a Mindfulness Bell app, set it to ring every hour. It's a nice, temple bell tone that is not annoying, set it on low so I can hear it. Every time it goes off, I scan my body for any tension I'm holding, ask myself what i am thinking/feeling right now, and do a "sensory scan": what do i hear/smell/feel/see?

Visualization: before I get out of bed in the morning, I think of some goals for the day, visualize myself dealing successfully with situations I find challenging (social situations, coworkers, etc). I try to rehearse, go over what has not been helpful, try to think of other ways to deal with things.

Spreadsheets; besides the DBT card I cobbled in Excel, I also have a Self Care tab I try to complete every am/pm. It just takes a few minutes, but allows me to keep track of things like showering and other basic hygiene that can fall by the wayside when I get too depressed. It's a sad state of affairs, but I find it helps me care for myself when I don't really have the will to do so, if only to check it off the list and get it over with.

Talismans: I carry some small things that tie me to the people I love, and make me feel more secure when I hit a low point; for example, a silver dollar sized purple quartz heart my dad gave me that I slip into my pocket every day. He had sent it with a supportive note, and when I feel small, just touching the heart makes me feel comforted, like I matter to someone.

Visualizations, pt II: this sounds kind of nuts, but I have crafted a serene place that I can go to in my mind when I need to calm down, soothe self. I can go there even when I am at work, and get stressed. Its not total dissociation, I just use it for a few minutes when the stress gets too much, emotions are on fire.

I have a pretty fatalistic, pessimistic world view that I try to keep to myself, and try to keep myself from lingering on. So much of my self care involves me putting off emotion based urges/actions for at least a day to prevent damage/overreactions, and ensuring I remain calm and rational.

Brazen,

There are a few things I do.

When I get triggered by something, it depends on how forceful the trigger is. If it sends me to a panic attack right away, one thing I do as self care is take meds.

But if not, if it's strong but not so strong that I'm heading to a panic attack right away I try and do some positive self talk. One thing I do is walk myself through the facts of a situation so that my emotions, which are often off-base, can realign to the facts, or the evidence. Like if someone criticized something I did at work...the old me would just feel terrible and want to hurt myself, but now, I look at the facts. This person offered me feedback to strengthen the project I'm working on. It does not mean I'm a bad person. In fact there was nothing personal about it. I can apply their suggestions and I will look better for it, because my project will look better.

So fact-based or evidence-based thinking has really been a big self-care strategy for me.

Also, asking for help when I need it.

And asking for company when I need it. Not allowing myself to isolate. I find that I naturally isolate but I do better mentally when I have company and social time. So I try to make sure I have interactions with people, even if they are short, at work so that I don't feel like my whole day was spent behind a computer.

I also do deep pressure therapy with my service dog. This is where he lays across my chest and stays still there while I breathe into the weight. This slows my breathing and helps me calm down in a panic attack.

Other forms of self care are walking away from a situation and leaving it to be dealt with another day. I have done this when in arguments with people. Have told them, look, I'm too upset to discuss this, you are going to have to wait until I can calm down and think straight. They don't like this, but oh well, it's not all about them. Hah!

I'm sure there's more I do but that's the most I can think of right now.

Seesaw

Thank You Everyone for sharing your experiences and suggestions