Madly Ever After

TIPP is a set of skills to reduce the effects of dissociation, panic, and flashbacks. Not all of it works for everyone and not every skill will work all the time. The acronym means:

T Temperature

I Intense Exercise

P Paced Breathing

P Progressive Muscle relaxation

The aim of these is to get you out of a hypo or hyper dysregulated state once you realise you’re in that place. Realising you’re dysregulated before dissociation is never easy though.

So what works for me and why and what doesn’t.

Paced breathing. I’ve a naturally low breathing rate 6-8 per minute. If I dissociate I mainly go into a hypo state but with accelerated pulse and need to slow it even further. I can drop my resting rate to 3 breaths a minute. As an aside I can, with pre-breathing (not from a scuba kit), hold my breath for 5 minutes inactive. This slows my system to a bare minimum and cannot go into panic. It does force a controlled dissociation though.

For anyone reading this, dissociation can vary from complete catatonic blackouts to a general floaty state where you are present but not present. Like a walking daydream or existing as a ghost in your own reality.

Temperature. Barefoot on something cold. I don’t know why this works for me. The science says cold extremities force blood flow back into the core. I just find it relaxing. I don’t like having cold feet but it’s like standing in the surf.

Intense Exercise. This doesn’t work for me. I really enjoy it but it pushes me into a hyper state which means a crash after.

Progressive Muscle relaxation. Doesn’t work. Nope, nothing, not at all. Makes me more tense than when I started.

Tensing reduces my blood pressure and anxiety levels and relaxing increases them. Go figure.