Just had an #anxiety overwhelm moment while looking at my to-do list, so I put it down and found myself looking around my room. I had to stop myself from doing that and just close my eyes and curl up instead, because every object in my room is automatically linked to multiple thoughts and associations, many of which are Things I Should Do.
I found myself thinking of a past therapist who often encouraged me to do a ’name five things you can see' activity to deal with anxiety, and how unhelpful I found it.
A strong pattern with my #autism is getting caught up with and overwhelmed by my own thoughts, which can certainly run wild on their own but are also easily triggered by things I perceive around me, and I wonder if anyone else #actuallyautistic can relate to this and find commonly recommended sensory grounding methods, presumably helpful for many people, to be totally useless or even harmful.
@actuallyautistic
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@samiam @actuallyautistic I hear this. In a moment of overwhelm, a list of 5 of this thing, 4 of that thing, etc... is way too much. I just need ONE thing to focus on - even better if it's a familiar, safe object with proven history of regulating me.
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