Recovering from Body Collapse

This is me...Yesterday. Collapsed...
No energy, shivery, didn't feel like I could stand up properly, felt a bit nauseated too.
Not good.
The occasion?
Well, I'd just finished a very intense slog of work away, and it had been bookended by family strife.
We all managed -to a greater or lesser extent...
But I collapsed yesterday.
Why yesterday? Well it was the first time I hit safe ground. My body knew it was safe.

Clue #1

The big giveaway was that despite lots of plans, I couldn't get out of bed.
When I did, I wasn't sure if I was going to cry.
OK so that's ...

Clue #2

This is emotion related.
I dealt with that on the spot, as in, logged and sorted what the emotions were as best
I could, but I still felt collapsed.
(Maybe I was getting the flu?)

OK time to deal with this body just in case I wasn't.
So this is the reasoning:

• Notice: I'd already noticed the trigger of high stress and feelings from a torrid week and logged them for later, being aware of what they were.
• Sort: I had dysregulated to the level of the brain stem  -basic body regulation e.g. maintaining body temperature and posture (couldn't stand up).
• I needed to intervene at the level of the body to feel Betta so a very elemental sensory intervention.

1. Create a safe space using looking and listening to orient myself
2. Use Touch to regulate...
3. Use Movement,
4. Putting it together with the other senses Taste and Smell

• Do: what I would do was scaffold those regulation needs to get maximum grounding and restoration of my body's more normal level of regulation.
• By the way, what's all this "regulate" biz? So... How is my body trying to cope with the collapse to feel safe and get back to some kind of normal function where I can take on the world and cope or survive, despite being under the pump.



We think differently at different levels of Stress. Body Collapse is in the bottom shut down part of the scale.I'm trying to regulate into my Head-together zone to cope better.

1.Create a safe space using looking and listening to orient myself

Well, in this instance it was about being at home and giving myself permission to not solve anyone else's problems except my own or my immediate families. That included giving myself permission to collapse and put all obligations on hold. I would take time to look at different aspects of the room, and people in the room when my head started to bolt to remind myself that I was home and all was OK. I would listen to what was happening and not try and control or react to things, more an observing listening. We all listened to music we liked.

2.Use Touch to regulate

There are 3 kinds of touch

Deep touch, like a hug, light touch like twirling hair or lightly stroking something soft and soothing and temperature.

The most comprehensive deep touch I could access was lying on the floor on my back next to the fire.

I warmed myself up until I no longer shivered.

3.Use Movement

There are 2 main kinds of movement -joint position or proprioception and balance.

Each time I got up I would stand on my tiptoes to both balance and feel my weight through my joints. This was the opposite of collapse and I was trying to gently rev my body up. I crunched some frozen peas because eating crunchy food can be very grounding, and when I had the energy did a few quick dangles from the staircase.

4.Putting it all together with the other senses.

I kept myself warm and fed myself when I didn't feel nauseated. I shuffled around home doing the minimum -but everyone was kicking back, and helped with a bit of homework and finally plonked into bed, still wondering if I may be getting the flu.

The next day I was fine. No Flu, slightly disturbed sleep -but sleep none the less.

And off I went, crisis averted.

If I hadn't recognised what was going on, I think I would have managed it the old way -which would be to launch into different kinds of survival behaviour, like sleeping, avoiding, day dreaming.
I probably would have felt rotten and resentful of all the things stressing me for at least a week...

By realising that I had been triggered, I identified the dysregulating emotions and stress, really just noticing them to deal with them later, took care of my profoundly collapsed body and created a safe space to regroup and reboot.

And today I am having a Betta Day!