Rockford Day 6 Treatment Summary

7/29/2024

Day 6 summary at Rockford at the Orchards:
- Very relaxing, non-stressful morning.
- Awake early enough to take girls for a walk & ride and still have to cleanup around the house. 
-9:15 arrival, nothing eventful.

-9:30 Session started with 11 people in the audience of which 3 were new. 
-Started off with communications related to aftercare & family sessions.
    • My first aftercare appointment with an external therapist has been secured so I'm in a good place.  Others are having difficulty.

- A.M check in process/weekend review:
  1. Current state-anxious but confident
  2. Status of weekend goal.  Maintain emotional stability. Keep a routine but step outside my comfort zone and do things that make me feel vulnerable.
    • Kept myself busy doing normal, routine tasks and executed my plan to skydive. The latter was used to eliminate burdens if only for a short period during freefall.  
    • I ran out of things to do late Sunday afternoon so I fell back on coping mechanisms to maintain emotional stability.  I was successful in combining my rational mind with my emotional mind to have the ability to recognize and respect feelings while rationally responding to them with a wise mind. (lesson learned day 1)
- Check-in with the doctor to determine progress made with medication.  At my beckoning, he increased the dosage from 2.5 Mgs to 5 Mgs.  The meds have had a significant impact on my behavior but as I explained to him I know I can still be better.  

- Coping with Anxiety lesson shifted to after lunch because of the extended a.m. check-in 
   process.
-Provided the definition of anxiety and listed common symptoms.  It's a normal and useful   emotion when we feel under threat; it puts us on alert and gets our body ready to cope. 

-What resonated with me the most about the definition is this statement: "Problems can arise        when the threat is in our minds rather than a real physical behavior and when our thoughts and      behaviors reinforce our anxiety instead of helping it melt away."

-How to combat anxiety. 

Common patterns of anxious thinking
  • All or nothing thinking-black or white thinking-either you're brilliant or stupid
  • Overgeneralizing-you weren't good at something once so you will never be good
  • Crystall ball gazing-assuming you can see into the future
  • Ignoring the positive-dismissing any good qualities you have.
  • Mind reading-believing you know what other are or will be thinking.
  • Catastrophizing-immediately worrying about the worst case scenario. 

How to challenge such thoughts

  •  Be honest
  • Ask yourself--what's the evidence to support this thought
  • Ask yourself--what are the chances of such and such happening
  • What would you say to your best friend if they came out with such thoughts
  • Tell yourself that you can cope and you can handle it.  
-Could not complete the entire module today so we'll pick up where we left off tomorrow.  

Key takeaway from today
Find a positive thought to replace every anxious thought and make an effort to believe it!

Most impactful moment
Had the opportunity to listen to a story shared by a new participant about her experience as a victim of domestic violence.  In her case, she was a victim of physical violence.  Whether verbal or physical, violence is not acceptable. 

Day 6 Goal
  1. Review the common patterns of anxious thinking and list of coping mechanisms available to combat such thoughts.
  2. Maintain the routine I've created during the time in treatment and use TIPP coping method if triggered.  

Concerns:
Restless sleeping I suspect to be the result of the Abilify.  Dr. told me to start taking the medication in the morning vs. the evening because it can produce a feeling of being more energetic.  Problem solved. 

Response
30 total hours of therapy and 8 doses of Abilify.  My mindset is stable allowing me to use my rational mind combined with my emotional mind to have wise reactions.  Every day I'm making more and more progress. 








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