(Enormous disclaimer this is about how I handle a specific flavor of brain problems, this is NOT about passively dealing with current external events)
I grew up in and around water to the extent that as a child I was deeply confused by the concept of people needing swimming lessons (...I was a child!!). I learned all about water safety, what to do when caught in rip tides, how to dive through big waves, etc.
It wasn't much help the one time I was bowled over by a fuck off big wave. The waves behind it were perfectly spaced such that every time I managed to reach the surface, another wave would crash down over me again. This was before my chronic illness became severe- I was 19-20 or so, living in Hawai'i and swimming and hiking regularly, so I was a strong swimmer, but since I never surfed, I didn't have any experience with wipeouts. I couldn't do anything.
If you've never been hit by a big wave, it's not just like being knocked over. It isn't just the force and weight of the wave hitting you. The water above doesn't stop moving when it meets the water below- it spins you rapidly around and around underwater, and there's not much you can do but wait it out and hope you don't get knocked about into anything hard. It's disorienting, it hurts, and you're powerless.
Getting my head slammed into rocks or coral was my main fear at the time. I can hold my breath. I can go limp to conserve my energy until the right time. Other injuries could be survived... but if I got knocked out, that would be it. I had no control over that, though, so all I could do was hold my breath and go limp and hope that I'd get an opportunity to break out of the cycle of waves. It felt like it would never end.
Obviously it did, and eventually I made it back to shore uninjured, crawled over to my stuff, and went immediately to sleep on the sand.
The thing about this incident is, rather than being a traumatic memory, I find it deeply comforting and soothing to think about when I'm having a bad time. It's not a technique I can really suggest to others, but it's so helpful for me. Sometimes I get stressed about things that can be changed, externally or internally- then it's important to work towards change. Sometimes, when it’s internal brain problems stuff, I need to actively manage things.
But sometimes my brain is a dumpster fire that is frankly above my paygrade to handle, and it's overwhelming and I can't talk myself through it and it feels like it will never end, and then I think about those waves, and how painful and scary it was, and how sometimes the correct action is to go limp and wait until the waves pass. It won't be pleasant and I will hurt and I will be afraid of drowning the entire time, but eventually the worst of it will subside and I'll be able to resurface and take a breath again. And then I'll take a huge nap.
(also the ocean is beautiful and nice to picture, even in a scary context!!!!)
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