As the title of a previous blog post said, distraction works. The trick is to have an arsenal of things that you know will help you and the best way to devise this arsenal, is to think about it when you are well, or relatively well.
A prepared go-to list of things that can help de-escalate in a (I don't like to use the word crisis but can't think of an alternative right now) crisis is invaluable. It is hard to think of things when things are bad, because thoughts and feelings will most probably be chaotic.
Also, what works for me, may not work for someone else. Being predominantly avoidant in personality, I find avoidance works up to a certain point. But it isn't the best course of action, because avoiding in its own way makes me fixate on what it is I am avoiding. For example, if I see a fleeting post on Facebook about subjects I don't like to read about, I will take myself off Facebook for a while to avoid seeing anything else about the subject. But avoiding Facebook and the subject in question doesn't erase it from my mind. I will spend an inordinate amount of time obsessing about it and catastrophising, without full knowledge of what it is that I am avoiding.
So, sometimes I will tentatively research around the subject and nine times out of ten, my mind is put at rest about it. Other times, I will return to Facebook and gingerly scroll through my newsfeed, on high alert, for more about what I am avoiding.
If all this sounds exhausting, imagine how I feel afterwards!
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