Of course I hope you never experience a crisis. But life happens, which means major emotional events happen. Your car breaks down, your spouse cheats, your best friend ghosts you, you lose your keys. Big and small, crises happen. So having a clear plan for recovering from a crisis is important.
This is a quick info bite, so I won’t go into tons of detail. But here’s the gist. (Want the long story instead of the short one? Maybe we should work together. Contact me!)
Recovering from a trauma or crisis happens in two phases.
Crisis Recovery Phase 1
Phase 1: Stop adding more emotional distress to your plate. A crisis just happened, that’s enough emotional distress. Stop adding more.
Ways we commonly add more distress:
- Get wrapped up in thinking about everything going wrong in our life
- Get out of our healthy routine
- Don’t ask for help; Insist on doing everything ourselves
- Procrastination
- Set unrealistic expectations (e.g., perfectionism)
- Self-criticism
- Withdraw from our friends and family
Step 1: Stop doing those things. See my post about sabotage for more.
Crisis Recovery Phase 2
Phase 2: Start decreasing the emotional distress that has accumulated on your plate.
Once you stop adding to your plate, you can start taking away from it. That’s when you start really healing and recovering.
This phase is where all your good coping strategies come in. Examples:
- Journal about your feelings (emotional processing is key in recovering)
- Meditate
- Hang out with a friend
- Book an appointment with your therapist
- Exercise
- Etc.
Step 2: Start doing the real emotional labor to recover.
Take a few moments now to identify what you can do in Phase 1 and then what you can do in Phase 2. Stick with it and you’ll find your way to recovery. Always consider working individually with a therapist for more ideas and a tailored strategy to help you recover from a crisis.
Hayden C. Finch, PhD, is a practicing psychologist based in Des Moines, Iowa, and Little Rock, Arkansas, dedicated to helping you master your mental health. She treats people with high functioning anxiety online across the US. Schedule an appointment here.
