Re: Can't calm down

[memzak]

Before I found out that I have ADD I heard that one way to stop the negative loop where a thought goes round and round and builds on itself was to do something silly; things like flap your arms or make a silly noise or both. The point of this exercise was to do something so silly and/or outrageous as to make yourself laugh. Laughing breaks a negative loop. Once you break the loop you can look at the negative thought and decide if it is true or not. Not true can be dismissed, true plan a course of action to take care of it. It doesn’t always work the first time you try it but I have used this technique myself and had much success with it before I found out why I got into the loops in the first place. I now can break most negative loops without actually making a noise although occasionally I still have to do something silly.

I have a tendency to beat myself up for stupid things I had done in the past. Using this technique has helped me realize that the past is in the past, realize what I learned from the mistake and put the memory in the past. Once I learned about my ADD this became even easier because I found out why I did the “stupid” thing in the first place and could forgive myself for it and then watch for similar situations to prevent it from happening again.

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