[Fruitbat]

Originally Posted by Miss Absynthe

It's all founded on the same processes. The idea is that you develop a positive trance state instead of the negative one that's usually associated with acute anxiety. Learning to police my emotional states is one of the biggest lessons I'm working on, and turning out to be one of the most effective things that I'm learning to help with everything.

There are a lot of tricks that I use which pretty much are different ways to bring about the same thing. I find that I dissociate very quickly when I'm faced with an acute stressor, and staying attached to my physicality is something that's important in those situations (although, I think that this dissociative ability is also the reason that I'm really effective as a trauma nurse).

Tapping my sternum to remind me to breath slower, tugging my hair, tensing and relaxing different muscle groups works really well. If it's night time and I'm trying to sleep then cuffing my wrist or ankle to the bed settles me a lot. They are all things that connect me to my body.

I think that learning yoga was a really big step in moving forward as well, and recommend it to anyone who has problems with anxiety, especially PTSD.

Have you done any CBT or EMDR? Yoga Nidra is good to connect you to your body, where you tense then relax each part of your body? I love Yoga.

What helpd the most with PTSD was changing my perceptions and perspective on things - trying to see events from the other person's side, because if I hadn't, I would have torn myself apart a long time ago. Instead now I run around with gaffa tape, mending the breaks.