Crisis Survival Skills

Activities

Do something that fully occupies your attention — a puzzle, a game, cleaning, cooking, anything absorbing. The goal is to interrupt the crisis loop long enough for the intensity to lower naturally.

Contributing

Do something for someone else — send a kind message, help with something, volunteer. Shifting focus outward breaks the inward spiral of crisis thinking.

Comparisons

Think about times you've coped with something hard before, or compare your situation to those facing greater difficulties. Not to minimise — but to remind yourself that you have survived hard things.

Opposite Emotions

Do something that creates a different emotion. Watch something funny, listen to music that lifts you, read something that makes you feel something other than what you're feeling now.

Pushing Away

Mentally put the situation in a box and set it aside — just for now. Tell yourself you'll deal with it later. This isn't avoidance forever, it's buying yourself time to stabilise.

Other Thoughts

Deliberately occupy your mind with something else — count backwards from 100 in 7s, recite something you know by heart, focus on a mental task that requires concentration.

Sensations

Use intense but safe physical sensations to interrupt the crisis — hold ice, taste something very sour, smell something strong. The physical sensation competes with the emotional one.

Vision

Look at something beautiful or calming — go outside, look at the sky, light a candle, find something in your environment that you can rest your eyes on. Let your surroundings do some of the work.

Hearing

Listen to music that soothes you, the sound of rain, or silence if that helps. Sound has a direct route to your nervous system — use it deliberately.

Smell

Smell something you associate with comfort or safety — a candle, a familiar scent, fresh air. Smell is the most direct sense connected to memory and emotion.

Taste

Have a warm drink, something you enjoy, something comforting. Eat slowly and pay attention to the taste — this brings you into the present moment.

Touch

Wrap yourself in something soft, have a warm shower or bath, hold something comforting. Physical comfort communicates safety to your nervous system.

Radical Acceptance

Radical acceptance means accepting reality as it is — not agreeing with it, not liking it, not giving up on changing it. Just stopping the fight against the fact that it is happening.

Pain is inevitable. Suffering comes from refusing to accept the pain. When you fight against reality ("this shouldn't be happening", "it's not fair"), you add suffering on top of pain.

Acceptance doesn't mean it's okay. It means: this is real, it is happening, and I can choose how I respond to what is real.