TIPP

[[TIPP Worksheet.pdf]] | External Link

TIPP Video Instructions by DBT-RU: DBT Skills from Experts on YouTube

TIPP is the easiest to use set of emergency coping skills for most people because they mostly rely on innate reflexes. This makes them kind of like emergency rescue medications for anxiety, allergies, or pain, in that they both work directly on the body. Unfortunately, this means they can also both lose effectiveness if overused or used in the wrong situations.

T - Temperature:

• Uses The Mammalian Dive Reflex, a reflex humans and other mammals have to reduce our oxygen needs while swimming underwater by lowering our heart rate and blood pressure.
• You can stimulate this reflex by placing something cool but NOT. cold!!! on your face, particularly your cheeks and forehead, but also the back of your head just above your neck. We're talking above the freezing point of water fridge temps here, NOT literal ice in the freezer temps. You can either dip your face in a cool (NOT COLD) bucket of water, or place a cool rag or wrapped cold pack over your face.

I - Intense Exercise:

• Sometimes anxiety gets you ready to deal with some undefinable threat, then when the threat never comes, the emotion never resolves. Sometimes intentionally raising your heart rate can allow your body to enter it's normal "cooldown" mode afterward.
• Anything that gets the heart pumping will do, but avoid using this particular skill if you have known cardiac problems. If you have NO cardiac problems but DO have mobility impairments, consider bed or chair bound exercises that use whatever active range of motion you do have, particularly dancing. I once asked a physical therapist about this specific issue and they recommended that whatever exercise you do uses the biggest movements you can safely do to max out the cardio effects.

P - Paced Breathing:

• You're either paying way too much attention to your breath, no where near enough, or both at the same time somehow. I have no way of knowing which one, even for myself, but I suspect it's that last one.
• There's lots of different videos and guides online with specific formulas and ratios for the best way to meditate on your breathing. Do whichever one your lungs seem to hate the least.

P - Paired Muscle Relaxation:

• This is kinda like the exercise but more focused on your skeletal muscles as a whole. You basically just flex your muscles really hard, usually in a head-to-toe or toe-to-head sequence to make sure you get all of them. When you relax the muscles, they should be at least partially exhausted, helping you to feel more tired / calm.