Psychotherapist on how not to get nervous and survive the crisis
The impact of the crisis is not limited. only our wallets and bank accounts. The media reports that antidepressants have begun to buy more, and publish articles that teach how to cope with panic, and friends on Facebook ask themselves, me and each other how to get rid of their obsessive desire to follow the dollar rate every minute. Everyone is in a fever, just to varying degrees, the miners are on strike, their favorite stores are closing. We live in interesting times, and it is terribly unnerving.
How to pass this lane, keeping peace of mind - or what was left of it? Remind yourself of two things more often. First, it is not known whether each of us will win or lose from what is happening in the country now. There are windows of opportunities that open up, there are professions that will turn out to be super demanded, there are, after all, spheres that the general recession touches in passing. But. If we bring ourselves to a nervous breakdown, fail to work and make decisions soberly, we will lose outright. When you are in a zone of turbulence, your main task is to keep your head clear. And the rest is tightened behind the head.
Our task is to restore the resource: spend less, and gain more
Secondly, the more spiritual forces we spend on things that are absolutely out of our control (the justice system was released to Vasilyev, and the director Sentsov was imprisoned, the medical system, no doctors, no medicines, ruined all polymers, elections in Kostroma, the dollar exchange rate, the price of oil, Putin, the exchange rate of the euro, and so on), the less these forces remain for what we could change in the near circle. The resource, alas, is finite. Therefore, the task is to restore the resource: spend less, and recruit more. Here they usually ask me: where are you going to pick it up, when it is autumn in the yard, the dollar has grown, you will not go to the sea, and the oats have trembled unusually? We list different ways - something helps me, something works great for my friends, colleagues or clients.
The general principle is that everything is well grounded. What is "grounding" is difficult to explain without using walking stamps, such as "being here and now", "being present in the current moment." In general terms, this means returning to body sensations, whether you are cold or hot, cramped or spacious, cozy, uncomfortable, whether you are sitting in a comfortable position, where it hurts, what is tense, what you want. And try at this level to adjust the state to the mark "physically, I feel good." Well, okay, at least "acceptable". Grounding is also putting up, literally as two layers of scotch, something that happens in your reality (the milk has risen in price by 5 rubles, you go in the rain or go to work, the grass is green, you have to fill the car), and what happens in a shaky reality, but causing disturbing fantasies (for example, oil quotes - are you going to sell a thousand or other barrels of Brent oil tomorrow?).
All these abstractions, such as "foreign policy", "internal policy", "fertility", "medicine", "justice", "industry", strictly speaking, are not at all a reality. You, of course, will tell me now that all these abstractions affect our reality. Yes. Render. But this is an indirect and not instantaneous influence. As an adult, you can go around some pitfalls, take care of something in advance, but something just never touches you. In addition, within each of the abstractions - whether it is "birth", "medicine", "foreign policy" or something else - at the same time there are multidirectional vectors: something changes for the better, something for the worse. The picture is always more complicated than we see it.
Grounds everything that helps to switch to the sensations of the body. That is, any bodily practices. For example, it may be the food you love. If for you it is not associated with shame, bans and counting calories. For someone, cooking is already meditation. Massage, yoga and any form of meditation that you have tried or have been going to try for a long time. Any cosmetic procedures that are not from the word "necessary", but from the word "pleasant." Everything connected with water: a swimming pool, a bath, a bath, a sauna, someone from a simple shower feels good if you stand for about forty minutes. Running is for some, I know, it's fun. If for you, as for me, no, then a walk in the forest. Or shopping. Singing and drawing. Dancing, singles or couples, in the fitness club or at the disco. Dancing is a wonderful thing, because it helps to both focus on the body, feel its position in space, hear the music, and engage in interaction with a partner. Everything you love to do with your hands: weaving beads, lace, knitting, nailing, picking up furniture from Ikea, modeling pots and jugs, folding mosaics and puzzles. There is a large field for experimentation - try it, something quite unexpected may like it. Work in the garden, provided that they are not disgusting to you. To plant something, to weed, to collect, then to boil it and lick off the jams of foam, to sort out something, to dry and put it together for the winter - all this gives the feeling that everything is in order with the world and momentary crises do not threaten it.
In the evenings, stay away from all kinds of news. All means exactly everyone, no exceptions.
What helps from the head? Good books. For example, for me it is Krapivin, Dovlatov, Tove Jansson and a few more completely, completely children's books, which are embarrassing and inappropriate to list here. This is my first aid kit. Of course, rereading Sartre or Heidegger, when you are already sad, is not worth it. Good movies where everyone eventually gets married. Family support, if a family is a resource for you, not another front line. Fine, if you can come to your mother, ask her to prepare food, whatever it is, and complain and listen, and get at least awkward, but consolation is even better if you can go to your grandmother, listen to what was sold in stores in 1969- m and what she was afraid in 1991. But the family, where they do not humiliate, but console, in Russia a terribly rare beast is a fact. Study Courses in English or extreme driving, lectures on microbiology or on Chinese calligraphy - everything that interests you and may be useful in the future, everything that will make you switch from the current moment. In the end, now on the Internet a huge number of webinars, lectures and training courses - among them are free, which is especially nice.
In addition to all of the above, you should strictly limit the reading of the media and social networks. In journalism theory, there is such a term “selection paradox”: not all news, but mostly catastrophic, alarming, sensational and shocking, comes to the attention of the media simply because it provides the best ratings and better sales. Everything is far from being so monstrous, as you might think, after reading before dinner of Russian newspapers. And even more so - the opposition. If you suddenly need to be aware of the news - read those who give a minimum of their own interpretations. Just the bare facts. These are usually news agency sites. And try to scroll through them in the morning, while critical thinking works well, and emotions are easily curbed. In the evenings, stay away from all kinds of news. All means all, without exception. And try not to work late in the evenings, especially at night.
Not only in social networks, but in reality it is better to gently limit communication with those who generously share their panic with you
With social networks is still more difficult. If some filters work for newspapers and especially TV and we don’t believe everything, then “cozy Facebook”, “contact” and “cozy zheshechechka” for many of us are an analogue of a reference group, a large family, messages from which are perceived completely uncritical. Well, it's your own friends, the inner circle, you don’t have to defend against them. And, when the level of panic in social networks grows, we begin to become infected with this panic. Further, this process is self-sustaining: agitated, we cling to the eyes for disturbing and apocalyptic forecasts, I want to repost them, I want to share and discuss them. We share, discuss - and rushed.
Set yourself fasting days without social networks. Weeks without social networks. You will be surprised how many of the apocalyptic predictions will not come true. Not only in social networks, but in reality it is better to gently limit communication with those who generously share their panic with you. They can be beautiful people, and do not turn away from them forever. You will return to them when you feel better. And now it is better to talk more with economists and doctors. The first will tell you that a crisis is a law, without which the economy cannot exist. And the second is that it is impossible to survive in the modern world without pharmaceutical support, so it is not a shame to drink soothing ones. Doctors also will prompt you - which ones.
Please do not self-medicate if you are not a doctor. Do not prescribe yourself any sedatives, nothing “to strengthen the nervous system,” especially antidepressants, even if it helped your acquaintances. All the more so - to strangers from online forums. Better look for a neurologist you can trust. In general, take care of health in all possible ways. Right now. Because when the nervous system is exhausted, immunity inevitably suffers. It begins to break where it is thin: for someone it is endless colds, for someone for the exacerbation of everything chronic.
How to understand that it is time to see a doctor? When sleep suffers. In a dream, the psyche is restored, and if your dream turns into a chain of nightmares, reduced to 5-6 hours, if you wake up at night and can not fall asleep until the morning, this is serious. When any step, any thing causes despair and the feeling "easier to lie down and die." It seems that there is no strength and never will be. This is the so-called asthenic state - it means that there are no more resources, and it is unlikely that they can be replenished quickly. It's time for help.
Get plenty of sleep and try while living at reduced speeds.
What exactly do not need to do? Buying buckwheat - it is better to buy a small supply of something without which you can’t imagine life (usual cosmetics, good shoes), and hammer on the rest. Go on a diet or play sports to exhaustion. In general, the body does not need to arrange any additional stresses, otherwise it will take revenge, and it will cruelly take revenge, and at the most unexpected moment. Abuse alcohol because alcohol is a depressant, it depletes the psyche and also causes dehydration. Save on yourself - money still depreciates, manage to spend it on something that pleases you.
In general, sleep more and try to live for the time being at reduced speeds - freeze until the best of times both agonizing conflicts and “ambitious projects”. Take on the shield the motto "I will think about it tomorrow." And tomorrow, you see, either the donkey will die, or the oil will grow, or a wonderful harvest of buckwheat will happen.
Photo: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 via Shutterstock