I am reading a book called The Crush by Sandra Brown. In it, one of main characters wears a rubberband around his wrist, and flips it against his skin throughout the book, although it never really says what it's for. He meets a dr, and she notices the band and asks if he suffers from panic attacks. She has heard that patients who keep a rubberband around their wrists, and flips it when they feel an attack coming on, seem to handle the attacks better. Apparently it distracts your mind long enough to keep the panic attack at bay. He denies he has anxiety, but later in the book, he suffers a panic attack and starts flipping the rubberband. Has anyone ever heard of this? I was amazed that this tidbit was in a mystery novel, but in all of my research, I've never heard of the rubberband technique.

AnnieG

Yes the old rubber band technique. Im 23 ive been suffering with anxiety and ocd. when i was 10 i went to a counseler who told me to do that. belive it or not it helps but u have to try it yourself.

I just typed a post about it in Lesson 1. I'm 35 and I "wear" a rubber band. I learned it from a support group to help stop self-injury. A large part of my SI problem is panic. My doctor doesn't like me using the rubber band, because technically I'm still hurting myself, but it's not as severe as other methods. I truly think that SI is related to anxiety, as a coping skill, even though I haven't heard of it in the lessons yet, so I feel like kind of a freak. It does something to those brain chemicals and calms you down.

dont feel like a freak!
lotsa us use rubber bands to not hurt ourselves!