We will look at the safety rules that will help you navigate turning around worsening symptoms of a chronic mental health condition and the busy brain:
Get your rescue kit drawn up ready to use
Draw up your hourly and daily action plan
Start immediately or restart immediately (never go with “start fresh tomorrow”)
Use a notebook, app, board whatever works for you to log progress
For those that find any kind of success in quieting of the mind with yogic breathing or meditation, activate that. If those things do not work for you, get out in nature (not exercise in nature, just be outside) or revive any craft, hobby, interest that you know can engage your mind
Flickr.com: Kristian Byornard
I also speak of a Relapse Intervention Kit in the Recovery Journal.
A rescue kit is having things in place that ease distress without resorting to relapse behaviours. What is in your rescue kit is essentially up to you. It is best if it is a physical box rather than a concept as you can get your hands on it, open it and focus on what is inside. Even if your contacts on your phone are up-to-date, write out the person’s name on a piece of paper or card with the words: “call them” that sits in the box (therapist, friend, family member, doctor, etc.). The contents may include absolutely anything from photos, to old letters, to candy, to a list of songs and music you like, to a book, a set of hobby and craft tools…anything that will enable you to direct your thoughts to supporting less distress and more ease without resorting to some of the maladaptive behaviours that are well-practiced and reinforce the chronic condition you are working on recovering from.
Draw up an hourly plan that sits in the rescue kit and have a daily plan of items that are going to reinforce your recovery behaviours.
Keep your daily action plan to only a few items you will accomplish and give yourself a time in the day that you will accomplish them. Reminder apps with notifications turned on can be very useful if you prefer to have your phone help you through the process. Resist the urge to add to the items until you have successfully had a run of 4-6 weeks where you are dependably doing them every day. At that point you can add new items on the daily action plan on the understanding that the previous items are now well and truly integrated into your habits and will not need to be as closely reinforced.
Logging progress may also be woven into a reminder app on your phone but it can just as easily be that you draw in a small star by each item on your to do list and count those stars up as a running total. Focus on everything that is accomplished and if you are someone who tends to dwell on what was missed remind yourself that you are moving from this point forward and will get the task done now instead.
As for yogic breathing and meditation, for some people these things are not suitable to their overall mental wellbeing. If they do work for you, then include it as one of items on the daily action plan. However, there are plenty of other options that will serve to create a calming state and a sense of being in the moment or flow.
As I have already written many focused pieces on techniques for recovery I will direct you to those links now.
But for this installment, I had really wanted to whisk through the safety protocol and get to the actual excitement that really does come with just moving forward. Yes some attempts will not be successful but those failures teach you very important aspects about what you need to do to be successful in the next try. Truly each failure to hit your daily action plan items, or maintain calm against the mounting anxiety that new behaviours generate for you is the kernel of information for your eventual success.
However, I have run out of time this week so it will have to wait until next week now.
Thankfully in the meantime there is the somewhere I can point you to for inspiration: Imbolc
See you next week with a bit more on why failure is so necessary and helpful for improved symptom management and recoveries.