Lola Nocheprieta
Diamond Member
[COLOR=rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.701961)]Sounds like some great insight going on up in here! :tup:
I wanted to add to what @She Cat said about taste and smell being some of the quickest ways to ground oneself ...
I use essential oils at home, and have a handful of different scents, but I also have an "Aw, f*ck!" Kit (aka a "Self-Care Kit" or "Grounding Box") that I keep in my backpack. In there I only have two scents: lavender and eucalyptus. The lavender is a calming, pleasant smell to me that I use for self-soothing. The eucalyptus, on the other hand, is very pungent and i don't really care for it. But it's not unpleasant, like ammonia-based smelling salts. And that's how I think of it, like old-fashioned smelling salts for when I need a strong, pungent scent to keep me present and grounded. I keep the two oils in a ziplock baggie in my kit. I usually just open the cap and take whiff of one or the other, depending on what I need in the moment. I do this either in my office (grateful for the work I do, which requires a private office), or in a bathroom stall.
I also keep strong mints in the kit. Again, I don't really care for them, they're too strong, but they're not there for my enjoyment. They are a really strong taste that, when paired with some choice phrases, like "okay, okay, I'm here, I'm alive, I've got these nasty mints in my mouth and I know it's 2016, not 1979. Ick, can I spit them out now?" snaps me out of dissociation land.
Something that combines this all together in one tasty treat is a cold orange. I keep them in the fridge for this purpose. They don't fit in my kit but they're otherwise pretty portable and I don't look like I'm doing something weird in public if I'm fidgeting with my orange ... I just look like a big kid playing with her food. The sensation of the skin, cold & bumpy, is very grounding and soothing to me, especially if I feel a migraine coming on. Rubbing and piercing the skin with my fingernail releases a pungent yet pleasant smell -- very nice and intense. Then, I can peel and eat it. If I'm still too "out there" I will nibble on the peel for a more intense taste/sensation.
One final thing for "instant" grounding/distraction: ice. Squeezing an ice cube in my hand is something I can do at home, if I can remember, and that really keeps me in the present and distracts me from dissociating or self-harm urges. But I can't do that at work. Instead, I keep a gel-filled eye mask in the refrigerator. Fortunately, I can just put that on my face in my office and close my eyes. If anyone asks I tell them I feel a migraine coming on. It's not cold enough to tip my temperature into the dive response, but it's a strong sensation and soothing (at least to me) at the same time.
These are all things I've had to figure out how to do discretely for when I'm not safely at home. Does anyone else have tricks for what to do when out and about?;)[/COLOR]
I wanted to add to what @She Cat said about taste and smell being some of the quickest ways to ground oneself ...
I use essential oils at home, and have a handful of different scents, but I also have an "Aw, f*ck!" Kit (aka a "Self-Care Kit" or "Grounding Box") that I keep in my backpack. In there I only have two scents: lavender and eucalyptus. The lavender is a calming, pleasant smell to me that I use for self-soothing. The eucalyptus, on the other hand, is very pungent and i don't really care for it. But it's not unpleasant, like ammonia-based smelling salts. And that's how I think of it, like old-fashioned smelling salts for when I need a strong, pungent scent to keep me present and grounded. I keep the two oils in a ziplock baggie in my kit. I usually just open the cap and take whiff of one or the other, depending on what I need in the moment. I do this either in my office (grateful for the work I do, which requires a private office), or in a bathroom stall.
I also keep strong mints in the kit. Again, I don't really care for them, they're too strong, but they're not there for my enjoyment. They are a really strong taste that, when paired with some choice phrases, like "okay, okay, I'm here, I'm alive, I've got these nasty mints in my mouth and I know it's 2016, not 1979. Ick, can I spit them out now?" snaps me out of dissociation land.
Something that combines this all together in one tasty treat is a cold orange. I keep them in the fridge for this purpose. They don't fit in my kit but they're otherwise pretty portable and I don't look like I'm doing something weird in public if I'm fidgeting with my orange ... I just look like a big kid playing with her food. The sensation of the skin, cold & bumpy, is very grounding and soothing to me, especially if I feel a migraine coming on. Rubbing and piercing the skin with my fingernail releases a pungent yet pleasant smell -- very nice and intense. Then, I can peel and eat it. If I'm still too "out there" I will nibble on the peel for a more intense taste/sensation.
One final thing for "instant" grounding/distraction: ice. Squeezing an ice cube in my hand is something I can do at home, if I can remember, and that really keeps me in the present and distracts me from dissociating or self-harm urges. But I can't do that at work. Instead, I keep a gel-filled eye mask in the refrigerator. Fortunately, I can just put that on my face in my office and close my eyes. If anyone asks I tell them I feel a migraine coming on. It's not cold enough to tip my temperature into the dive response, but it's a strong sensation and soothing (at least to me) at the same time.
These are all things I've had to figure out how to do discretely for when I'm not safely at home. Does anyone else have tricks for what to do when out and about?;)[/COLOR]
