[pegasus]

If you think you are about to lose your mind, about to have a psychotic episode, panic attack looming or losing touch with reality please try these tips that I have tried and tested.

1) Touch your immediate surroundings. Look purposely around the room you are in, or go outside and look what there really is around you. Take your time to really take in the sights and sounds. Touch the table next to you, the fridge, the door, the book case. Remind yourself where you are and what the date and time is.

2) Self-talk, tell yourself that you are safe now. You are truly ok in the here and now.

3) Talk to a friend, talk to someone on the internet, come to Psych Central, share your fears, find friends.

4) Practice relaxation and breathing. When you feel like crap the breathing goes to pot. Place your hand on your stomach, breathe in 1-2, breathe out 1-2. Keep this going for at least 10 minutes.

5) Please know that you are not alone. There are other people just like you that understand. You are not going mad. You are human, one in four suffer from mental health problems.

With love, and I hope these tips help. Pegs X

[~Christina]

Thank you so much for this post Pegasus

[sugahorse1]

Thank you so much!

[Perna]

I use to live on a semi-busy street and would go out the front door and stand and watch cars go by and touch my apple tree and smell smells, etc.; using the rest of one's body instead of just one's imagination, using one's senses, helps me.

[JadeAmethyst]

Thanks! I will experiment with this.

Jade

[spondiferous]

I find grounding so important. Which is odd since I don't do nearly enough of it...

Thank you, Pegasus. I found that helpful.

Here's a strange one, I think. Maybe you can shed some light on why it works, if I can adequately describe it.

When I was 14, I had an experience that left me reeling for years afterward. My siblings and some friends had gotten into huffing gasoline to get high, and I joined in. Once. That's all it took. The hallucinogenic effect was terrifying, and I'm not sure I ever completely recovered from it. Similar to an LSD flashback, sometimes something would trigger a memory of those hallucinations, and I'd experience it all over again. I became detached from my surroundings, not knowing if life was real or if I was merely a game piece in some cosmic tournament or something. It's difficult to explain, because the sensations are surreal.

Gradually I discovered that when this started happening, the worst thing I could do would be to freeze in terror, thinking, "Oh, no, here it comes again." If I did that, I would find myself staring at a single spot, and this would send me into some kind of trance, *enabling* the flashbacks to happen. Instead, I found I could break it by deliberately shifting my gaze straight up toward the sky. This would stop it from going any farther, and soon I would feel "real" again. This happens only rarely nowadays, but it has never completely gone away.

Do you, or anyone else, have an explanation for what was going on inside my head?

[avlady]

Pegasus, I just started using Jane Fonda's Yoga, and feel alot better after doing it . the morning session is about 10 minutes and she teaches breathing too.

[ThisWayOut]

I've found grounding techniques like that are pretty easy for my head to escape from. My T and I realized that I needed something more cognitively engaging, so I try to ground by thinking about a puzzle or how to explain something to someone. I do not know why the other grounding techniques do not work and this does... Unfortunately, it often requires another person to ask me something that I have to ponder before responding... Even that does not always work... I have yet to really give Yoga a try... maybe that will help?

[pegasus]

Thanks for all the replies.

Sometimes the last thing you feel like doing is to 'relax' and it might take listening to a CD of someone else instructing you in how to relax and tense parts of your body. Practicing and going through a relaxation sequence can help for when we feel the stress building.

Distractions can be useful too. There was a time when I played patience with a pack of cards over and over again, to take my mind off what ever was distressing me. I also became an expert at playing scrabble on my own, seeing what the highest score was I could get.

And then later on I learnt some mindfulness techniques where I would imagine a massive hurrican/tornado storm happening around me and imagine that I was at the centre of that storm, right in the middle of it, where it was calm. I'd gradually learnt to sit through some emotional pain and let it subside. I let that storm calm and stop raging.

Another one I use a lot is the 'safe-place' visualization. Think about a real calm safe place that you have been to where you felt safe or make up your own safe place. Mine is a special place on a cliff top that I can visualize easily when I need. Sitting with my dog with nobody else around on a beautiful summer's day with the grass gently blowing in the breeze and as I look ahead I can see the sea and waves crashing on the shore...

[rosey1]

I think grounding is absolutely essential at times when one does not seem to know why the symptoms arise. You just feel "out of touch". One thing I have tried recently to come to the moment is to get an ice cube and hold and just focus on that sensation for as long as I can and feel the sensation until I feel I am returning to me. When it gets cold enough in my hand, and I have felt that moment significantly, then I put it down. At times, this seems to help.

[Fuzzybear]

Thanks Pegasus!

[justmemaybe]

" panic attack looming" I have those from time to time. When Im heading to camp and am driving in very heavy rain it can really throw me. Even if im just riding in the car. I have to focus on something else.
ty ((((pegs)))))))))))))))))))))))) )))))))))))))))))

[Fuzzybear]

[Fuzzybear]

[Fuzzybear]