Zuena
10-18-2010, 11:16 AM
Hi all,
Has anyone ever tried "therapy" in the way that when you are scared something will happen - going crazy, fainting, etc. - you actually picture yourself in that situation, lying on the floor in a dead faint or being stuck in a lift, and taking it further by actually getting through the situation in your mind? For instance.. Say your worst fear is getting stuck in the lift. Obviously you need to do this when you are calm. So you picture this.. I am stuck in the lift. Panic. I can't get out! But, instead of thinking you are going to die of a heart attack, you think ok.. I am in a building with lots of other people. I am going to press the buttons to see if the lift will move. If not, I am going to press the alarm so someone can help me. Until someone gets here, I will sit on the floor and dig around in my handbag / play a game on my cellpone or whatever you might have with you to serve as a distraction.
I have found that this really prepares me for situations where I feel out of control. By repeating this excercise in your mind over and over again, when something that you fear happens (I got stuck in the lift last week) you fall back on that "plan" or "scene" that you imagined.
Once you have gone through it once, and managed to stay even semi in control, it gives you the courage to get into the lift again and it chips away a little bit of fear at a time.
Has anyone tried this?
Z
Has anyone ever tried "therapy" in the way that when you are scared something will happen - going crazy, fainting, etc. - you actually picture yourself in that situation, lying on the floor in a dead faint or being stuck in a lift, and taking it further by actually getting through the situation in your mind? For instance.. Say your worst fear is getting stuck in the lift. Obviously you need to do this when you are calm. So you picture this.. I am stuck in the lift. Panic. I can't get out! But, instead of thinking you are going to die of a heart attack, you think ok.. I am in a building with lots of other people. I am going to press the buttons to see if the lift will move. If not, I am going to press the alarm so someone can help me. Until someone gets here, I will sit on the floor and dig around in my handbag / play a game on my cellpone or whatever you might have with you to serve as a distraction.
I have found that this really prepares me for situations where I feel out of control. By repeating this excercise in your mind over and over again, when something that you fear happens (I got stuck in the lift last week) you fall back on that "plan" or "scene" that you imagined.
Once you have gone through it once, and managed to stay even semi in control, it gives you the courage to get into the lift again and it chips away a little bit of fear at a time.
Has anyone tried this?
Z