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What to do if you are in Crisis.


Warrior Princess

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Hi all,

I'm not in crisis! But thought I would post this here rather than good day and recovery. I find that when I'm in crisis that's the last place I go! Hope that is ok.

The Purse Dump

Often when you are in a crisis situation it's because you are overloaded. Then it's time to offload some of the crap and give yourselves a bit of a break. I call it my purse dump! The women can relate to this I'm sure. It's when your purse gets so full of bits and pieces, junk mail, extra make up, money hidden at the bottom, can't find the mobile phone under tissues and other odds and ends. It gets heavy to carry and is so disorganized... so what do you do? Dump the whole thing on the table and only put back what you absolutely need! Toss out the junk and rubbish, put the rest away where it belongs and Voila! You have a much lighter load. Try it with your schedule and life.

For the men... think of it as re organizing your tool box. That's what my hubby likes to do. He empties the whole thing, cleans out the rubbish and then puts the tools back in order from largest rachet to smallest... puts all the drill bits in their holders and then he has an organized little area to work from.

So how do you apply this to your lives? I tend to do it with lists. I make a list of everything on my mind. I go back and prioritize it with *'s. One * means not so important... five *'s very important. Then I re write the list with just the five * things on the top. The rest gets filed til later.

so example

1. Mental Health - top priority...

2. Physical needs (food, shower, sleep)

3. Taking care of the kids and animals.

4. Work

5. Pay bills

6. time out for play and relaxing etc. and Forum.

Your list might be different or in a different order. After you make that list can then PLAN what to do for each. For the first one it might be ring crisis team or MH worker, take meds, take care of physical self.

Slow down and do One thing at a time.

Lastly what I tend to do is one thing at a time. Choose ONE thing on the list to do today. No other! Just one. Do that thing first. Then if you have the energy for others stuff you can do that as well. Obviously things like paying bills and taking care of kids can't really wait til tomorrow but some things can!

Ask for Help

Also, ask for help where you need it. Keep your crisis team updated and be honest about how you are feeling and what you have done to help or hinder yourself!

Limit your worry time.

Put a time limit on how long you will look at the list. Say, 2 hours. After the 2 hours is up LEAVE IT and take a rest. Do something you like. Take a warm bath, cup of tea, spoil yourself. I like to go garden and forget the list and the problems for at least another 2 hours, if not for the rest of the day.

Crisis box or self help box.

Keep a crisis box. this is a little box you have with things in it to remind you of what you have to live for. I have pictures of my kids in there, reminders of good times such as the time we all went and played laser tag! I have words to songs I relate to and like, I have affirmation cards, crisis numbers, a bunch of cards with things to do rather than self harm, practical things like band aides and dressings, print outs of posts from here that were helpful and positive. Basically anything that is helpful and up lifting. When ever you are down, go to the box and review the stuff in it.

Use a Tephlon Mind

This is when you allowe thoughts to slip out of your mind as if they were a cooked egg on a non slip frying pan. the frying pan is your mind, the egg is the thought. Just let it slide out onto a plate and your head is clear of it. Do it as many times as yu need to to get rid of unwanted thoughts. Some people prefer to visualize a leaf on a stream. You're standing at one point at the stream and watching the leaves which are your thoughts, slip on by slowly by with out reacting to them. Or you can visualize a conveyer belt with items on it that go by. You watch them go by with out evaluating, judging or reacting to them. I find using these techniques that my thoughts get "sick" of me and they slow down since I refuse to react to them.

Hope everyone is well. I will see you all in a few days when I get back.

:inlove3::hug2::oink:

W :rambo: P

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awesome tips there wp.... i can way recommend the "self help box" it is also useful to have one of them when you go away somewhere too... maybe a smaller version... i travel alot and i always take mine with me - couple photos, cue card with some fave affirmations, fave little keyring size fluffty toy, couple fave crystals and a couple other little things that feel safe and comfortable... they have been v useful when away from the safety and familiarity of home...

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  • 3 weeks later...

Warrior Princess I hope this is where I'm supposed to put my Crisis Plan?

So what do I do in a crisis?

First I come to this site praying for someone to be here on chat to talk to and hopefully cheer me up and calm me down.

Second if there's no one here then I Try to call a friend to talk to to do the same thing.

Third if late at night i go to Facebook to chat with friends on chat.

Forth if no one is on any site I go to chat and no one is awake then I will try looking at videos on youtube or watching tv.

Fifth I go out alot to give myself something to do being cooped up makes things worse for me.

Sixth if all else fails I go to sleep.

Sorry but this is the best crisis plan I can come up with.

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