Lather Rinse Repeat

[EccentricButHarmless]

Recently I had a huge flashback, and there was a big drama over that. I was in the middle of a high-stakes deadline at work, and had to keep my self together. But there's a cost to keeping oneself together, at least for me, because now that some of the pressure is off and I'm doing what I need to so I can feel a little safe (like no contact with the people who freaked me out), I'm finding that every little thing is making me jump. Not physically maybe, but mentally. Like I'm always thinking, "Oh shit, what *next*?"

Hypervigilance is the result, which kicks in some early childhood training, which raises the intensity level even more, and someone says a cross word, or a workman across the street drops something, and bango. These aren't panic attacks really - I have those too, though not too often. These are different. It's kind of like I get more and more hypervigilant until my eyes are darting everywhere identifying threats and finding escape routes.

It's not that bad for me now - I've been at this for a while, unfortunately, though it's been a while since I've gotten this wound up. What I'm doing is taking a break to do some deep breathing every hour, taking my Celexa, taking care to keep the pace less frenetic. Anyone have other suggestions of how to break the feedback loop and get ramped down?

Thanks for your input, I appreciate it. :)

 

[safenow]

What I'm doing is taking a break to do some deep breathing every hour, taking my Celexa, taking care to keep the pace less frenetic

I have to go outside and just breathe outside air. Touch a tree or a leaf. Look into the sky (even when it's a cloudy or rainy day). Listen to the sounds of nature. That grounds me really well. If I am in a place where there is a stream, I put my hands or feet into the water, then drink some of it.

Each of my alters has their own ways of doing things. Well, not all of them, but now it is most of them. Even my little do things when I'm upset emotionally. coloring, playing with a small bell, opening and closing a Velcro strip of material. My religious reads the words of the prophets and applies them to us. My health nut makes us fresh vegetable juices and fasts. She also makes sure we get rest, rather we want to or not.

I hope something in that mix helps. I know right now, I am hyper-vigilant, have been for a while now. I've been doing everything I can think of to relax. Today, I see my therapist to get some new ways. I let you know what he suggests.

 

[MagiLisu]

I was told when I feel anxiety looming I should try and visualize I safe place (for me this is the sea).

I will also sing songs to myself, or hold a safe object.

 

[safenow]

This might be equivalent to working a cross word or jigsaw puzzle, but this is what my therapist told my little to do yesterday and it worked from them. For all of about 10 minutes. LOL. But it worked, and that is what counts, right?

Choose a color, find an object in the room of that color, then name the object and count it. Like, apple = 1, flower = 2, etc. Move on to the next object. Continue until you have named and counted all the objects in the room.

When one of my little started to take off our shoes so she could keep counting, he had us stop.

Aren't you glad you are not a multi?