Put your phone down. Both feet on the floor. Press them into the ground. Feel the pressure. Name the surface under your feet — carpet, tile, wood, concrete. That surface is real. You are here.
Exhale first — push all the air out. Then inhale for 4 counts. Hold for 4. Exhale for 6. The long exhale tells your nervous system the emergency is over. Do this 4 times.
Say out loud or in your head: "I am having an overwhelm response. It is temporary. The information will still be here when I'm ready." That's it. Don't analyze further.
Choose ONE: get water, walk to a window, text someone "thinking of you," or close the app for 10 minutes. Not all four. One.
Say: "I am angry and that is an accurate response." Don't talk yourself out of it. Anger about injustice is not a bug — it's signal.
Stand up. Push your palms against a wall as hard as you can for 15 seconds. Release. Repeat 3 times. This gives the activation somewhere to go that isn't your group chat or a stranger online.
Ask yourself: "Who actually has power over this?" Write that name down. That's your target. Everyone else is venting — which is fine, but it's not action.
If you want to say something — write it in your notes app. Not the comments. Not the DMs. Notes app. You can send it tomorrow if you still want to. You almost never will.
Wiggle your toes. That's it. Freeze is your nervous system pulling the emergency brake. Moving one small body part tells it the brake can release.
Run cold water over your wrists for 15 seconds. Or hold something cold — a glass, a can, anything. The temperature change interrupts the freeze loop.
Look around the room slowly. Name 5 things you can see out loud. "Chair. Window. Charger cable. Cup. My hand." You're reminding your brain you're in a room, not in the news.
Say: "I can come back to this later. Closing the app is not the same as not caring." Then close it. Set a timer for 30 minutes if you want to return.
Say: "I am in a thought spiral. It feels urgent but it is a loop, not a conclusion." Spirals disguise repetition as progress. Name it and the spell weakens.
Set a 5-minute timer. You have permission to think about this for 5 more minutes — then you stop. The container gives your brain a boundary it doesn't have right now.
Open your notes app and write every thought in the spiral. Don't organize. Don't edit. Just dump. When the timer goes off, close the note. The thoughts are stored — you don't need to keep them in your head.
Do something that uses a different part of your brain: listen to one song, do 10 jumping jacks, draw a shape, count backwards from 50 by 7s. The spiral needs your verbal processor — give it something else to do.
If you're experiencing ongoing distress, please reach out. Crisis Text Line: text HOME to 741741. 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline: call or text 988. These are free, confidential, and available 24/7. You're not weak for using them — you're doing exactly what this kit is for: using the right tool for the level of need.