Six or fewer steps

[AnneL]

Hello, I do not suffer from panic attacks but I do understand that the same preventive process (6 steps) can be used for anxiety episodes or anxious thinking. But it does seem difficult to know how and when to break into an ongoing blanket of fearfulness and depression -- other than setting arbitrary times like once an hour. Similarly, for,OCD-like thinking that is not a precursor to specific, more dramatic behaviours. I know CBT-like approaches involving steps similar to the "six steps" seem to have had success with a number of people. (See "Brain Lock" by Jeffrey Schwartz re OCD and "You Are Not Your Brain" by Jeffrey Schwartz and Rebecca Gladding where they generalize the approach beyond OCD.). I do find 6 steps a few too many and so I appreciated talking to Coach Chris and her suggestion of four: A (acknowledge and accept); B (breathe - 2 in; out); C (calming self-talk); D (distract - doing other things). But I still find it a bit hard to know when to do this when faced with either an ongoing fog of depression and/or extremely frequent negative thoughts -- as it feels like I'd be 1-6ing or ABCDing constantly. Best wishes to all for success with whatever you are working on.

[coachchris]

Hi Anne,

Thank you for your recent post.

You are right say that in the beginning we are practicing the ABC's constantly.

Focus mostly on the C part. Comforting, calming and compassionate truthful selftalk. Because I too was an obsessive negative thinker I just started saying things like: 'This thought is not helpful for true and I choose to let it go.' I said this over and over again. I was also thankful to hear the lies/negative and not fear them. Try and make room for the negatives while changing your attitude toward them. Thoughts just thoughts. Hang in there. It gets easier but it takes months and months of practice.

Keep me posted.
Coach Chris

[coachchris]

Hi Anne,

Thank you for your recent post.

You are right say that in the beginning we are practicing the ABC's constantly.

Focus mostly on the C part. Comforting, calming and compassionate truthful selftalk. Because I too was an obsessive negative thinker I just started saying things like: 'This thought is not helpful for true and I choose to let it go.' I said this over and over again. I was also thankful to hear the lies/negative and not fear them. Try and make room for the negatives while changing your attitude toward them. Thoughts just thoughts. Hang in there. It gets easier but it takes months and months of practice.

Keep me posted.
Coach Chris