Sit With It
It's the mantra we use at Mountain Valley to do exposure work.
What is "Sit With It"?
From your therapist, its the exposures to do and a tracking sheet for habituation.
What is a work order?
Thoughts, feelings, actions
What are the parts of the CBT triangle?
Sweaty palms, stomach ache, heart beating faster, flushed face, have to pee!!!
What are physical anxiety responses?
What you prepare for if you sandbag your house, or when you do an exposure that your not ready for.
What is flooding?
This process is what allows us to learn that we can tolerate anxiety and breaks the anxiety maintenance cycle.
Habituation
Your home alone cause your parents are at a boring adult function. You are in your room watching tv and you hear a bang and footsteps downstairs. Your heart starts pounding, you get shaky and sweaty, and you curl up in your blankets and freak out!
What is a normal/typical/adaptive anxiety response?
"My softball coach only let me be starting pitcher cause he knew my dad got off work early to see the game, if dad wasn't here I'd be on the bench. Coach is just trying to make me feel better, I know I'm the worst one on the team, I'm not even good enough to play with JV, let alone the travel team!!"
What is a cognitive distortion?
Alex has social anxiety. He sees his crush across the lunchroom and their eyes meet. Alex's heart starts pounding, his skin gets all clammy, and he runs to the nearest bathroom where he hides for the rest of the afternoon.
What is an example of the flight response?
When you give a presentation and squirm, pace, apologize for it being bad, talk really fast, and stare at the floor.
What are safety behaviors?
Creating space between ourselves and our thoughts.
What is thought diffusion?
If you go swimming in any pond, lake, or ocean, you will, for sure, most definitely get a parasite that will crawl in your body and lay eggs under your skin. I saw it on "Alive Inside You", it happens all the time. What anxiety pathway is this?
Transmission of misinformation
I am a bad friend.
I will never get better.
The world is a dangerous place.
What is a core belief?
Health issues, depression, social isolation, and low self esteem are all caused by this.
What is longstanding or chronic anxiety?
fireballs, ice plunges, progressive muscle relaxation
What are grounding skills?
These are examples of three effective things we can do to create space between us and our thoughts.
I'm noticing I'm having a thought.
Taking meaning out of the thought by saying or writing it over and over.
Writing the thought on paper and carrying it around all day.
or any other diffusion skills
"It'll be embarrassing"
"I'll get all sweaty and people will stare"
"Even if I try it won't work out"
"I'm never going to pass this class"
What are anxious predictions?
I definitely failed that test...I'm going to fail the quarter...I'll fail the semester...I'll have to do summer school...none of my teachers will give me a recommendation...I won't get into NYU and I'll have to go to community college...I'll never get a good job...No one will love me cause I'll work at a gas station...I'll be alone forever...
What is an anxiety spiral?
The part of the brain in charge of the initial panic and fear response.
What is the Amygdala?
you actually really feel like you are going to die.
What is a panic attack?
Discomfort, anxiety, unpredictability, and the unknown, among other things.
What is the "it" that we are sitting with?
These are the 4 parts of the anxiety maintenance cycle.
What are the fear trigger, misinterpretation of danger, maladaptive coping response, and heightened sensitivity to the fear cue?
You know logically that you aren't stupid, and you aren't anywhere remotely the dumbest person in your class, but it still FEELS true no matter how much evidence you have.
What is being fused to your thoughts?
This is the place where emotional memories are tagged and stored in the brain.
The Hippocampus
You are trying to talk with friends, color, journal, listen to music, play a game, or think pleasant thoughts to decrease your anxiety; but you're barely hanging on and you're starting to panic!!!
When is it too late to use a coping skill?