One of the ways to support yourself, to help you calm down, to come to your senses when you feel bad/anxious/lonely is to make coping cards. These are supportive notes to yourself that will help you “pull” yourself out of the storm of emotions and thoughts. Most often, we either try to convince ourselves of something, or we cheat and intimidate even more, or we scold them for such a broken state with the last words. All these behavior options only make things worse, driving us into a vicious circle. In moments when emotions overwhelm and even paralyze, it is very difficult to hear our rational mind, we don’t hear it, we don’t believe it. For this purpose, cognitive behavioral therapy has created such a concept as COPING CARDS. There are several rules for their creation: They need to be written in a functional state. What does it mean? When you are calm, relaxed, confident, in a good mood. Write by hand. We will trust our handwriting and our hand more easily than ordinary printed text. Size does not matter. Write as much as you want to write. You must believe in what is written there. She should NOT look like this: Such phrases have never reassured anyone. If you don’t mind, I’ll give an example on my coping card, which I made for myself with my psychologist many years ago , in case “If you are overcome by causeless anxiety and panic” Now it seems to you that you are abnormal, but you are not! You try to understand the cause of your anxiety, but these thoughts only intensify it. You fight with it, and it sucks you in like a swamp. It seems to you that this is for life, but it’s not! You always return to a calm state, always! You feel tension in your chest, your heart beats faster - it’s uncomfortable, but not dangerous. These are waves of the state that over time will become less noticeable and will cease to be a problem, because you are working with your psychological health. Now it seems to you that you are anxiety, it seems to have swallowed you, but this is not so! Where is the anxiety in the body? Let her stay there as long as she wants. You are more than just an emotion. Pay attention to other parts of the body where you do not feel anxiety. Take a pen and paper and write down the entire stream of thoughts that are spinning in your head, so you can separate yourself from them. You can always go to your psychologist if you can’t cope. Squat - this will release stress hormones. Breathe. The longer the exhalation, the better. You see everything in black, but this is a deception of your brain, it just wants to protect you and is doing its job. Millions of people live with anxiety disorder and even at this moment someone is suffering in the same way, you are not alone. What would you do now if anxiety didn’t bother you? - Start doing it. In fact, it doesn’t bother you, you just believe in it now. The tension will subside on its own, you don’t even have to do anything for it. Talk to someone about your anxiety, who will listen to you and understand. You’re doing great! You are not alone, this condition will end soon." Do you understand the principle? You need to describe your condition to yourself, normalize it and tell you what to do (there are hundreds of options, you need to find what supports you). With all kindness and acceptance. Embracing yourself with these words ( or better yet, a physical hug). Try it! I’ll be glad to help you. To sign up for a consultation, click on the Get a consultation button.