distress tolerance
hey fam
are you going through it? yeah? yeah.
me too, frankly. life's a mess, there's fascism everywhere, late-stage capitalism can jump off a cliff, and I bet a whole schwack more of us than usual are scraping the bottom of the barrel for grocery money.
I can't fix the world, or any of our wallets, with a text post. would that I could. (if I ever can, I'll let you know.)
what I can offer you are some mental health skills and a little bit of encouragement.
today I'm gonna tell you about TIP skills.
TIP skills are part of DBT, which stands for Dialectical Behaviour Therapy. this is a therapy that postulates:
you want to change a behaviour or a thought.
to change the behaviour or the thought, you do something different. (this is different from CBT, or Cognitive Behaviour Therapy, where you work on changing the thought first.)
disclaimer: I am not a psychological health professional. I have letters after my name, but they have nothing to do with psychology or medicine. what I know, I know from practice and being taught.
TIP skills are immediate distress tolerance skills. these are the tools you pull out when you are overwhelmed and need to reboot your brain or get your nervous system to calm tf down because that motherfucker's not listening to you.
T is for Temperature. Splash or submerge your face or your body in cold to very cold water for up to thirty (30) seconds. Doing this with your face specifically activates your vagus nerve, which resets your central nervous system, taking you out of that fight/flight/freeze/fawn response and letting your prefrontal cortex take the wheel again. Doing this with your entire body can result in a dopamine spike - and if you do this on the regular, there's some evidence you can actually raise your dopamine baseline. (Check out the Huberman Lab podcast/website for more information on cold therapy. Fascinating stuff.)
I is for Intense Exercise. Do something physical that raises your heart rate to "vigorous" for up to 20m. Run in place, get a yoga flow going, break out the Dance Dance Revolution, whatever floats your boat. If you're among those of us with limitations on your physical activity, try it in stints of a couple minutes at a time, and recognize that the important part is raising your heart rate, not matching a standard of physical activity that your body can't handle. Does walking around the block make your heart work? Then it counts. This exercise will get your blood flowing, will help reset the neurotransmitters that might be out of whack, and will also give you some time and space between you and whatever caused the big emotional reaction.
P is for Paced Breathing. Try literally any paced breathing exercise. Box breathing (four equal counts of whatever number works for your lungs: 4 inhale, 4 hold, 4 exhale, 4 hold is the standard, but do what works for you), 4-7-8 breathing (4 inhale, 7 hold, 8 exhale; an easier version is 3-4-5)... You can find guided breathing exercises on every app and their dog these days, or on YouTube; you can also just count them them yourself. I usually count to my heartbeat, or just in seconds. If you are feeling anxious, try a relaxing breathing exercise: make your exhales longer than your inhales. If you're feeling lethargic, try an energizing breathing exercise: make your inhales longer than your exhales. Try inhaling through your nose and exhaling through pursed lips, as though you're exhaling through a straw. Pursing your lips like this changes the breath pressure, which can also help stimulate that vagus nerve.
ok, that is all for today. give one of these a try next time you're feeling overwhelmed by the horrendous state of the universe. they won't change the situation, but they may certainly help you change your reaction to the situation, and that's the place to start.
before I go: are you hungry? angry? lonely? tired? take care of yourself, please. there's only one of you, and we've got graves to dance on that haven't been dug yet.
