If feeling overwhelmed, do the 5-4-3-2-1 grounding method.

Find and make note of:

• 5 things you see
• 4 things you touch
• 3 things you hear
• 2 things you can smell
• 1 thing you can taste/recall tasting

And the idea with this is to stop dwelling on your negative spiral, and to focus on immediate surroundings.

Therapist also said to feel free to mix and match the sense with the number. For example, I don’t have a good sense of smell, so I do 2 things I can taste/remember tasting, and 1 thing I can smell.

There used to be a coffee shop in my town. Every day they had a two-part secret phrase that would let you get drugs, but it sounded like an order. I think I activated it one time. “Can I please get a double-double with whip cream?” “Sure. How’s your dog Mittens?” “I have no dog?!” Later, the coffee shop shut down because they got caught drug trafficking. They would double cup the coffee orders that had the drugs, and put the drugs in between the paper cups.