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ICE TECHNIQUE |
If you don’t know what the `ice’ technique is, here is a little overview. If you really want to go for it (and this is not a particularly pleasant thought or experience for most people…until they find that it works;) ), fill a sink with cold water and add some ice. If you don’t have a sink, fill a big mixing bowl. Okay, so, you’ve got some really cold water in a sink, right? Now, you’re going to hold your breath and dunk your face and head in for as long as you can hold your breath. Then come up, exhale, inhale and dunk again. Repeat as many times as you need to until you feel quite a bit calmer. The most the average person should need to dunk their head is 4 times in one session. It isn't a pleasant experience. It is rapidly calming (Fortunately, the longer you practice other dbt skills, the less you’ll need to use the TIP skills…but they’re always good to remember)
The ice-dunk simulates the `dive reflex’, which is what would happen if you actually were in freezing cold water and your body needed to conserve its energy to try to survive. In such a situation, your body would essentially start to slow or shut down functions that weren’t absolutely vital for survival. Our anxiety/emotions are not vital, so they get calmed way down.
Honestly, as horrible as this skill might be to practice at first, it becomes the favored skill of most participants.
Some people could not, for various reasons, dunk their entire heads in water. They would vigorously rub lots and lots of ice over their face and heads for 15-30 seconds. Others would put ice packs on their heads. Marsha talks about taking bites out of frozen lemons and oranges. I’m not sure how that would correlate scientifically with the dive reflex, but if it works, who cares???
The ice-dunk simulates the `dive reflex’, which is what would happen if you actually were in freezing cold water and your body needed to conserve its energy to try to survive. In such a situation, your body would essentially start to slow or shut down functions that weren’t absolutely vital for survival. Our anxiety/emotions are not vital, so they get calmed way down.
Honestly, as horrible as this skill might be to practice at first, it becomes the favored skill of most participants.
Some people could not, for various reasons, dunk their entire heads in water. They would vigorously rub lots and lots of ice over their face and heads for 15-30 seconds. Others would put ice packs on their heads. Marsha talks about taking bites out of frozen lemons and oranges. I’m not sure how that would correlate scientifically with the dive reflex, but if it works, who cares???
Revised from: dailydbt
