Emergency Plan

Information: Make a emergency plan for those days you feel overwhelmed with emotions like anxiety. Write it down and make sure is very visible for when you freak out. Then, breath and follow the instructions.
Thoughts: I've been dominated by my emotions. I feel so anxious and sometimes so sad that I don't want to leave my house to work. It is like having a list of excuses not to leave. I don't know if it is a vicious pattern that I created over the time living with depression or if it is just chemical imbalance.
Then, of course, I act on things I should not. I don't go to work, I eat sweets like crazy, I don't exercise. Then I think of hurting me.
It is a cicle. A vicious cicle. I need to stop it right when I start feeling anxious. That's why I must have an emergency plan.
Routine: I ate to much. I didn't go to work. I didn't exercise. I drank a lot of diet coke (caffeine). I thought about starting up a business. To many things and feelings stirred in a dense broth. My emergency plan that I wrote on my board is: 1. Take a shower, 2. Go for a walk, 3. Eat fruits, 4. Don't think about the near future, just focus on the steps to get there. The order is important. Take a shower and then go for a walk gives the skin a refreshing sensation.

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Uptades from 2013: until today I'm trying to perfect the "emergency plan". However, it's been a long time since I don't manage to get out of a sadness state with the help of the plan.

The plan shrunk. It is basically a very disciplined step: get out and exercise. If not able to exercise, at least get out of the house. It works like magic. The secret is to turn deaf to anything that my mind throws at me as an excuse. The most frequent excuses are that I didn't eat right during the day, so I can't exercise, or that it too late, or that I just don't want people to see me. IGNORE.

Another good step that I recently added is to listen to a motivating song. One that makes me want to go do something. It also helps by allowing me to go out, but at the same time to keep in a "safe" mental environment, that feels like isolated, but it's not.

I still need to find a way to be quicker on my recovery. What I experienced that really helps is to have a ROUTINE and stick to it. Structure helps a lot, because it makes evident when something changed and I need to watch out.