Neuro spicy folks! RE: yesterday’s convo, can we start a thread of your fav tips, tools, coping mechanisms, etc. for anxiety & task paralysis? Anything, ex. a time management strategy, an app you like for organization, a book that helped you, a DBT worksheet you use, a tidbit your therapist told you
Good Morning :) Have you read: Getting Things Done?
Good Morning! Have you read Getting Things Done?
I commit to one pomodoro! Or start with the absolutely most basic task in my list. It often makes it a bit more bearable
I use headphones and music without lyrics to focus and get things done. I have lots of soundtracks (Blade Runner, Tron, Dune), and artists like Vangelis, Kruger & Dorfmeister, Jarre. Lyrics are distracting, but music drops me into the groove and I stop thinking about everything and focus on a task.
For immediate, urgent anxiety (as opposed to ambient anxiety about something I can put off), I really like cold, and so do two of my kids. Hands on a cold window, washing hands with cold water. If it’s really bad, holding an ice pack wrapped in a thin cloth.
Boosting to 🧪 and MedSky since it’s particularly helpful for me personally to hear from other folks in science/academia/etc.
For me, much of my anxiety comes from catastrophizing, so de-catastrophizing wkshts help a ton! I also like the DBT Cope Ahead wksht, and use it to cope w/ current anxiety more often than to actually cope ahead haha. When I truly spiral, I really like 5-4-3-2-1 grounding and TIPP distress tolerance
I have two brains: there's My Brain, then there's Squirrel Brain. Squirrel Brain is easily distracted, panics when thinking about starting things, and procrastinates. I HAVE to distract Squirrel Brain with movies & TV. Only then can My Brain focus on whatever while Squirrel Brain is occupied.