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 happenings of the day.
- You can start by describing the time you woke up, the menu on the breakfast you had, the flavor of the coffee you drank, the appointments you had for the day, the dress you wore, the shoe you put on, the song you played while driving to work, phone calls you received, the friends you met, the conversations you had, the e-mails you received, the restaurant you were at for lunch, colleagues who visited you at your desk, 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 events of the day to yourself or a family member.
- Describing your day 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.
