Patient was instructed today upon practicing the grounding technique for anxiety management as follows:
- Grounding helps you to realize your surroundings and gain control of the current situation.
- Practicing grounding techniques can help gaining contact with the current moment.
- You can practice grounding technique by trying to verbalize the surroundings you are in.
- You can start by describing the color of the wall in front of you, the greenery of the park you are in, the surface your body is in contact with, the color of the shirt you are wearing, the people in front of you, the objects or trees that you are seeing around, any song or music that is being played, any smell that you are able to experience, the feel of the soft toy in hand, and the temperature of the surroundings, and so on.
- Whenever you get overwhelmed with flashbacks and are at risk of losing contact with the current moment, start deep breathing, and try describing your surroundings to yourself or a family member.
- Describing your surroundings will associate you and your body parts with the current situation, thus helping you gain control of the current moment.
- Since shifting the attention from anxiety and flashback episodes could be difficult when the intensity of episode is high, start practicing grounding techniques when the anxiety level is low or none and gradually move on to practicing the technique with high levels of anxiety, as you gain more control on practice.
