Woooosaaaaaa

So in therapy, the bulk of my "hour" (I use quotes because, just like on TV, it lasts 50 minutes) is spend talking about how things have been since my last session. So far, that has been crappy. As I've related previously, this has been a 'challenging' month to say the least.

Anyway, then we get into the WOOSAAAA portion of the "semi-hour". This is the part where we practice relaxing. Let me just say this first. The therapist is a tall slender woman of Indian (or Pakistani) origin. She is probably the most calm person I have ever met. She is the physical embodyment of Xanax. She speaks slowly and softly. So much so that I find it hard to even get anxious with her around. I think instead of Zoloft, I might actually just pay her to hang out with me.

The actual relaxation techniques are simple enough. Breathing (which I'm an expert at due to my 31+ years in the industry), something called "mindfullness" which means basically that I'm supposed to call my 'problems' what they are; anxiety, depression, whatever. And, there's the sort of redirection thing. This is the thing that's working a little better for me.

This invovles disctracting your brain from going into overdrive. She recommended something like drinking a glass of water or putting lotion on your hands. During this process you concentrate 100% on just that task. Nothing else. This seems somewhat dangerous to me because what if I get like addicted to putting lotion on my hands? I think people might look at me strangely. And it might make my keyboard sticky...

I prefer to go a different route. I do math. Which, for me is a HUGE distraction. I count backwards from 100 by 3s, I do double digit multiplication, or squares of numbers. All of this amounts to using up the precious few brain cycles I have on doing something I'm no good at. It seems to help. Usually by the time I get to 16x16 I'm so involved in carrying the 1 (or is it the 2) that I can barely remember what numbers I'm multiplying, let alone that I'm having an anxiety attack.

Its good, you should try it.