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Rachel Mintz: Hey, my name is Rachel and I’m a clinical intern here at Heartland Therapy Connection. Our blog topic for December’s anxiety. And I think this is a really good one because many people experience anxiety and really a lot of different shapes and forms. I wanted to go over a quick DBT skill that you can use for these moments where you may be experiencing a lot of anxiety Panic some of those physiological reactions. I think these can be used really well during a panic attack for those who don’t know what a panic attack is or for those who have experienced to panic attack. A panic attack is a moment of intense fear Panic anxiety often accompanied by a lot of physiological reactions. This can include sweating trembling fainting lightheadedness. Nausea vomiting, just a bunch of different things can happen really depending on the person. This is when you’re a fight or flight reflex really goes off and for a lot of people they think that they really are dying or having a heart attack. This is why you’ll see someone call 911 or the hospital to make sure they’re not dying and it is good to rule out that this is not a medical condition you’re experiencing since some of these symptoms can mimic other medical complications. So definitely want to rule those out before you decide to panic attack. But if it is a panic attack, there are some ways to cope with feeling this intense Panic one of the skills that I said I’m going to go over is the DBT skill it is called tip.

TIPP stands for Temperature, Intense exercise, Pace breathing, and Progressive muscle relaxation. So the first part you really want to radically change the temperature of your body or the environment that you’re in a great one for this that I use personally is putting my face in a bowl of cold water or ice water this activates your diving reflex, which is a reflex that happens when you go underwater your body naturally knows to hold your breath and kind of slow your heart rate instead of breathing obviously and allowing oxygen into your lungs or allowing water into your lungs.

This is a really good one because again, it slows down your heart rate to kind of lower some of that Panic. So if you are using the water and the bowl method you want to put your face in it hold it for a few moments not too long where you feel like you’re struggling but just a short period of time kind of bring it back up breathe for a moment and I would repeat this about three times. So lower that heart rate. The next one would be intense exercise for this you want to engage in some aerobic exercise. This could be running in place jumping jacks push-ups even go in for a job. If you’re able to outside this really gets your heart rate up and it seems like it would be kind of contradicting to the idea of what Doing but this can actually use up some of that energy that you might feel has activated because of this anxiety or panic attack or just the anxiety or feeling in general.

This can also be a really good distraction in that moment because then you’d be more focusing on the exercise and the feelings that you’re feeling in your body as a result of the exercise instead of maybe the Panic or fear in that moment the next one of paste breathing this again, the concept is to lower kind of your heart rate kind of control some of those oxygen levels coming in. So for this one, I like to breathe in through my nose. Count to two one two and then breathe out through my mouth like I’m breathing through a straw.

After repeating this for a couple moments, you’ll find that your heart rate will most likely start to decrease and some of that Panic will start to kind of fade away the last one. Progressive muscle relaxation. This one is used really well in Tangent with the paste breathing for this one. You really are gonna want to flex certain muscle groups kind of tense up on purpose. I like to start with my shoulders that have in my body since I can’t Flex my head really so I’m gonna start with my shoulders. Flex some really hard Usually you’re gonna close your eyes during this and then as you let go kind of exhale.

And you’re gonna do that throughout your body, in these moments of intense Panic or fear, you might be feeling multiple things throughout your body sweating trembling just fear in general. So this is kind of regaining some control and what is happening in your body. You want to start the top and slowly go all the way to your bottom. So next I would do my arms and my hands I know it Flex them up. and release

So again, this is just the TIPP skill: TIPP; Temperature, Intense exercise, Pace breathing, and Progressive muscle relaxation. I think this is a really good tip for anxiety, when you’re having those physiological reactions kind of common those in your body. And this is the first video of I will give many other tips in videos to come again. If you are struggling don’t be afraid to reach out to us at Heartland Therapy Connection and talk with one of our counselors today. Thank you for listening.