Compartmentalize
I look at some people and wonder how they manage not to buckle under the strain of all that is going on in their lives. These can range from the high and mighty — monarchs and presidents - to ordinary individuals struggling to keep body and soul together against huge odds. Although presidents are not patients of mine, I am sure they cope by compartmentalising their thinking. This is a trick many people use to deal with stressful situations and fortunately it is very easy to learn.
Just as we put computer information in files, we can put stressful situations or events into well-defined boxes in our mind. Good examples are bereavements, previous traumatic events or major problems in our lives. If we tried to think about all our worries at once we would either give up and admit defeat or not be able to deal with any of them. Instead we should view each problem as being in its own box, from which we choose to take it out to look at when we want to think about it. When we have had enough or have solved the problem, it is put back in its box and closed up until the next time we need to think about it.
I was recently driving along a country lane when I came across a car accident that had just occur red. The vehicle had skidded on mud and flipped over into a waterlogged field, throwing the driver out. To my surprise I found myself administering first aid to one of my patients, who was remarkably intact apart from a heavy concussion. Some weeks later we met up and I asked how he was getting on. He had been having nightmares and flashbacks about what had happened and had been feeling depressed. I had not seen him at all in this time, so was disturbed to hear this, and asked him what he had done to improve things. Rather sheepishly, he told me he had learned to put the accident and all its effects into a box, and tie the

.Crisis Management
whole thing up with red ribbon. When he felt he was becoming anxious and worried about what had happened, he sat down for five minutes in a quiet place and very deliberately imagined untying the ribbon and opening the box. He then went over the events of the accident before shutting the box up and retying the ribbon. Each time he did this he thought of his family and told himself how lucky he was still to have them. He then felt better and carried on with his life, until he needed to 'open the box' again several weeks later. He had worked out for himself that this was a healthy way of dealing with his near-miss. No one had suggested it to him.
When stressful things happen to us there is no point in trying to pretend they have not. Sweeping things under the carpet only stores up stress for the future. By rationing our stressful thoughts we prevent our lives from being taken over by them, leaving us better able to enjoy the things that matter to us most.
If you have more jobs on the go than you can handle, compartmentalize. Think of each task as sitting in a box, and take it out when you need to work on it. When you have finished, put it back. Deal with upset or trauma in the same way.

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