12 Grounding Techniques for Anxiety, Panic and Dissociation
Fast, practical grounding techniques using your senses, body and mind, including 5-4-3-2-1, and how to build your own grounding plan.
Topic · 8 articles
Trauma & the nervous system
Trauma is not only a memory. It can live on as a nervous system that keeps scanning for danger long after it has passed. Understanding that is often the first relief.
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Why Your Nervous System Is Still Living in a Threat That Ended Years Ago
The nervous system doesn’t update automatically when danger passes. It updates when the body gathers enough evidence that safety is real. Here’s what that process looks like.
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Trauma & nervous system
Trauma & nervous system
The Window of Tolerance: Why Some Days You Cope and Others You Can’t
What the window of tolerance is, how to tell if you’re above or below it, and practical ways to come back and widen your window over time.
Trauma & nervous system
Hypervigilance: Why You’re Always Waiting for Something Bad to Happen
What hypervigilance is, how emotional scanning shows up in relationships, the difference between intuition and hypervigilance, and how to let your guard down safely.
Trauma & nervous system
Fight, Flight, Freeze or Fawn: Understanding Your Stress Responses
The four survival responses explained, how each shows up in daily life and relationships, and how to work with yours instead of fighting it.
Trauma & nervous system
Emotional Flashbacks: When a Small Moment Creates a Big Reaction
What emotional flashbacks are, how they differ from panic attacks, and a step-by-step plan for getting through one.
Trauma & nervous system
Complex PTSD (C-PTSD) Explained: Signs, Causes and Treatment
How complex PTSD differs from PTSD, its core symptoms, common causes, and the treatments that help.
Trauma & nervous system
Dissociation and Derealization: When Everything Feels Unreal
What dissociation, depersonalization and derealization feel like, why they happen, grounding for when everything feels unreal, and when to get help.
X vs. Y
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Calm down5-4-3-2-1 GroundingA guided, step-by-step version of the 5-4-3-2-1 grounding technique for anxiety, panic and dissociation.Open the tool Calm downWindow of Tolerance Check-InAnswer a few quick questions to see whether you’re above, inside or below your window of tolerance, with tools matched to your state.Open the tool
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Common questions
Do I need to retell my trauma to heal?
Not always. Some trauma therapies involve working with memories in careful, structured ways; others focus first on safety, stabilization and present-day skills. A trauma-informed therapist should go at a pace you can manage.
What is the difference between PTSD and C-PTSD?
PTSD is a diagnosis in the US DSM-5-TR. Complex PTSD is recognized in the World Health Organization’s ICD-11 and adds long-term difficulties with emotions, self-worth and relationships, often after prolonged or repeated trauma.
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