Hey strangers!
Feel like I need to say that seeming as I haven't blogged in well over a month!
How have we all been doing? Christmas? New Years? So many events and celebrations! I'm sure it's been a rollercoaster for you all like it has been for me!
If anyone has any requests for blogs throughout 2015 give me a wee message or comment and I will respond ASAP! I'm really busy atm with so many different things but I will try to get back into the swing of blogging!
So recently has been very difficult for me. I got a very nasty flu over Christmas which always starts the anxiety off! I felt very out of control and resorted back to not eating correctly or even nearly enough which in turn led to me losing weight... again. My urges increased and basically the voice in my head and the intrusive and depressive thoughts have been overpowering. However, I am just about managing to keep them under control and I'm battling away because in recovery, as we all know, that is all we can do when things seem worthless and never ending, keep going.
I thought tonight I'd go over some techniques that are distraction whenever you feel like you have no other option but to act on your urges. For a lot of you this will seem probably quite patronising and repetitive however this may be new information to somebody who is very scared tonight, so for that reason I shall share with you some tips. I myself use these, some more than others, however tonight especially I am finding it extremely hard to battle them, so here goes -
1.) Whenever you feel numb, or the emotional pain and distress is far too great to manage on your own, you will most likely have thoughts of self harm. So one way of feeling a physical sensation which will not cause harm is ice. Get ice cubes from wherever you can manage to get them, hold one in each hand/in crease of elbow and squeeze really tight, so you can feel the ice freezing away in your hand/crease of elbow. Whenever it melts, your skin may feel a little - very numb, so repeat, however on a new position on skin.
2.) Elastic bands. Put elastic bands around your wrist and lower arm, and ping them back and forward so you get the sting of the elastic without any scars.
3.) Progressive muscle relaxation. If you don't have sheets on this, look up the full exercise online. Basically you tense and relax every muscle in your body, one at a time, from your head to your toes and then relax them one at a time so as to know the feeling of tensing and the true feeling of relaxing.
4.) Safe place. Go to a place in your head, a place where you have no possible chance of getting hurt or being harmed. This may be a beach, a treehouse, a park, a boat, an igloo, or somewhere that you have previously been that you felt very relaxed in, you can even create a place in your mind! This place is just for you. Describe to yourself or out loud what the place looks like, everything you can see, what smells you can sense, what your body feels like, is there sun heating up your skin or is there snow cooling you down? Can you feel grainy sand, or the swinging motion of a hammock? What can you hear? Is there silence? Can you taste anything? Stay in this place for as long as you need to relax and then slowly return to reality again.
5.) Drawing on your skin. Use a red pen and write/draw along your arms and legs or wherever you usually harm.
6.) Write in a journal. You can do this two ways. One is write about how your feeling and anything you wish to let out. The other is if you have a lot of anger then scribble/write on a page of paper, scrunch it up, rip it apart and throw it away!
7.) Breathing. Especially when anxious and hyperventilating this is useful. We breathe in too much oxygen for our bodies to cope with whenever we hyperventilate so it is very important that we breathe out for longer than breathing in. So breathe in for 4 seconds, hold your breath for 2 seconds, breathe out for 5 - 6 seconds or as long as feels manageable, then hold for two seconds before repeating the process. This is very hard to do whenever you are very worked up practice this exercise whenever you aren't anxious and you will be more prepared to deal with the situation when you are. So breathe in .. 2 .. 3..4 and hold .. and hold .. and breathe out .. 2 ...3...4...5...6.. and hold at the bottom and hold ... and repeat.
8.) Add colours to your breathing depending on your mood. So whenever you feel anxious for example imagine breathing in the colour pale blue, and breathing out red. If you are depressed breathe in white or yellow and breathe out black. Etc.
I haven't gone into great detail here as they all are very individual and if there are any you would like me to explain more please ask, I have many more techniques I can offer if none of these work or suit you, don't panic! There are always other options!
Never.Give.Up.
All my love,
Erin.. x
