Have you used a calming technique to get you through something frightening?

[MrsKoala]

I have a very minor non painful medical thing tomorrow (MRI) and i'm being a bit of a baby about it. I was thinking of using some kind of breathing or self hypnosis technique to get me through it. I get claustrophobic so am quite scared. I have had one before but had a panic attack and then even when sedated I didn't keep still properly.

If you have used some techniques which you found helpful i would really appreciate any advice. Thank you.

I sang Bobbing Along from Bedknobs and Broomsticks to myself in my head about 100 times when I had an MRI. I think it did help a bit tbh. Keeping in time with it regulated my breathing.

In for one out for one, then two etc up to six. I've used this many times to calm myself. Close eyes and focus on the breath.

I always count my times tables in my mind. Daft but works for me.

Thanks. I'm practicing that one Euro. that may work. Sadly i don't know the bedknobs song or my times tables... When i try to sleep i count backwards from 100 in 3/4/6/7/8s so that may help too. I'm trying to remember the hypnobirthing workshop i did.

I have a lavender oil roll on that I put on my pulse points and it always calms me.
A breathing technique used in meditation is to breathe in slowly through your nose for 6 seconds, hold your breath for 1 second, and the breathe out of your mouth slowly for 7 seconds. After doing this for 5 mins I always feel so much calmer.

My granny used to travel a journey she knew well, if that makes sense. So she would imagine getting In a car, checking mirrors and all the junctions etc.

Try box breathing ok. You can google it, or I use an app called prana breath which walks you through some techniques. Obviously you can't use an app during the mri but the techniques are simple enough to remember and really effective at calming your nervous system.

Play the alphabet game. Think of a subject, eg plant, food, names etc and think of one for each letter of the alphabet. Eg Apple, bread, cheese etc

Ask for headphones so you can listen to music or the radio. I once spent the entire time arguing with Jeremy Vine in my head!

I tend to get a bit panicky during the take off part of a flight and someone taught me this:

Close your eyes and imagine there is a blackboard in front of you. Imagine slowly picking up a piece of chalk and writing a big number 1 on the blackboard. Then rub out the 1 and slowly write a 2. Then rub it out and write a 3. Repeat all the way to 100 (if you need to). The main thing is to imagine all your actions are in slow mo. If you get to 100 but don't feel ready to stop then reverse the process back to 1. You could just keep going to 100 and back if you need to but you might find you don't need the full 100 at all.

I think the combination of something to concentrate on plus the fact your breathing automatically slows to match the speed of your imaginary movements is why it works.

Great ideas on this thread.

My dentist once told me that you can't feel pain in the out breath, so my simplest check is that I am not holding my breath. I often find that my first reaction to fear is to hold my breath so get those out breaths going.

Any counting games, breath in for four (or two or three) and out for the same amount. I'm on left nostril and out through right nostril

Like someone's Granny upthread who goes on a journey, I explore a building I know quite well. My primary school was in a big old higgledy piggledy building, I visit each classroom in turn navigating round the corridors. That usually puts me to sleep..

Hope it goes well

Slow breathing, in through the nose and out through the mouth. I get panic attacks, which come on completely without warning, and I've 'trained' myself to ride them out by repeating short mantras in my head, (or out loud, if the situation allows). So:
I am fine (emphasis on fine)
I am safe
Nothing bad is going to happen
Everything is ok

And so on - sometimes I make up new ones on the spot. Combining them with the slow breathing tends to calm me down. I will also sometimes grab a pen and pad and start writing the mantras down over and over again - obviously I appreciate that's not really an option during an MRI!

Thanks all. I’m practicing these now before bed.

"A breathing technique used in meditation is to breathe in slowly through your nose for 6 seconds, hold your breath for 1 second, and the breathe out of your mouth slowly for 7 seconds."

This. Add to it by imagining your out breaths are breathing out all your stress and fear. Give it a colour. When you breathe in, imagine you are breathing in love, acceptance & calm.

Your breathing is more powerful tha your thoughts - when you breathe like this and concentrate on just that, your other thoughts will lose their power, your heart rate will lower and you'll reduce the cortisol in your body.

Hope it goes well.

Breathing is good. I also use visualisation techniques. I go through the whole thing in my head, step by step. Really imagine it happening in real time. Helps me anticipate how I’m going to feel and deal with the anxiety in advance.

Good luck OP. Some great tips here, thanks for the thread.

I count from 100 down to zero in a foreign language. Not easy but takes my focus away from my anxiety.

I used to look at a screw in the ceiling at the dentist study it really hard more or less hypnosis I guess

Hope mri goes well.
I had a 1 hour mri in the summer. 1st time was abortive as panic attack...2nd time I read up in advance & used this: I closed my eyes and did 7 -11 breathing which is supposed to calm your autonomous system, the thing that sends you into panic. Count to 7 breathing in, hold a moment, count to 11 breathing out.
Nearly fell asleep. If they hadn't interrupted me periodically to do a specific breath for the mri, I would have!

When I had a detached retina repaired with local anaesthetic and no sedation I imagined walking along my favourite beach on a warm sunny day.

I always think pink!!

I close my eyes and regulate my breathing, then focus on a imaginary pink cloud floating in a blue sky.

It's so calming

I find counting is really helpful, is there a foreign language you know but really badly? Like I tend to count to 30 in French during blood tests. I taught this to DS as well. I get a bit head swimmy around 15 but having to concentrate on the numbers distracts me enough to keep me in the room.

With MRI it's the sound and the enclosedness isn't it? It might help to repeat a sort of CBT thing - I remember feeling really anxious once on the Metro in France and I just repeated to myself "It's just a noise, if I couldn't hear it I wouldn't be scared, the noise is just the train moving through the tunnel, it doesn't mean anything is wrong."

Hand position affects your breathing and therefore how relaxed you are.

Try it. Put your hands in a natural relaxed position and see how you breath. Then clench your fists and see how your breathing changes The put your hands in the meditation position, relaxed with thumb touching middle finger. This is the most relaxing.

I was taught this by my PTSD therapist.

Thank you all so much. I did the box breathing technique and watched some YouTube guides of it before hand. I laid on the bed and visualised the whole thing and spent 30 mins laying still and breathing and visualising numbers.

Then I went to the place 30 mins early to get ready and relax but they whisked me straight in as there was a mix up. Which I think actually helped. I did it all as practiced and it went fine. I was very relaxed and sleepy by the end and all the images were good apparently.

I may try this technique for driving on the motorway!