TIPP
When the smoke alarm is going off and talking won't reach you, the body has a reset button.
8 to 10 minAbout today
TIPP is the skill you reach for when distress is so loud your thinking brain has gone offline. Not the everyday irritated, not the school-is-annoying. The actual my body is going sideways and I can't talk myself out of this moments.
There are four pieces. Temperature, Intense exercise, Paced breathing, Paired muscle relaxation. Each one talks directly to your nervous system instead of trying to reason with it. Today we figure out which piece fits which moment, using a thermometer that shows what your body is actually doing.
What's shared here stays here. Names, stories, details, all of it is protected. The only exception is safety.
You can pass at any point. No explanation needed. If something doesn't fit right now, say "pass" and we move on.
Cold-water and intense-exercise pieces of TIPP can interact with cardiac issues, low heart rate, electrolyte instability, and some medications. If you are on activity restriction or your medical team hasn't cleared you for these, the breathing and muscle pieces are still yours. We will name this throughout.
10 to 12 minBridge questions
Pick whichever lands. We are warming up to talk about the loud moments, so the entry is gentle.
10 to 12 minThe smoke alarm and the fire
There's a part of your brain called the amygdala. Picture it as a smoke alarm. It does not check whether the smoke is from toast or from a real fire. It just yells. When it yells loud enough, it shuts down a different part called the prefrontal cortex, which is the part that talks, plans, weighs options, and uses skills like ACCEPTS or DEAR MAN.
This is the trick: above a certain level of distress, the part of you that knows how to use skills is the part that just got shut down. So you cannot think your way out. You have to start with the body. That's what TIPP is. It is the skill you use to bring the alarm volume down enough that the rest of your skills can come back online.
TIPP is for SUDs 70 and up. SUDs means Subjective Units of Distress, your 0 to 100 read on how loud the alarm is right now.
Below 70 you have access to your thinking brain. Use a regular skill. Above 70 your thinking brain is offline and reasoning won't reach you. Use TIPP first, then once it's quieter, try the regular skill.
Using TIPP at SUDs 40 is overkill. Trying ACCEPTS at SUDs 90 doesn't work, and then you decide skills don't work for you. Both errors are common.
Borrowing what's already wired in
TIPP is not punishment. It is not a self-harm replacement, even though one piece of it is sometimes used that way. It is borrowing reflexes your nervous system already has, the same ones seals use when they dive, the same ones a baby uses when their face touches cold water. You did not have to install this software. You're using factory-installed hardware.
15 to 18 minT · I · P · P
Tap a letter to open it. Each piece works on the body through a different door. The first two work fast and hard. The second two work slower and stay portable.
About 50 degree water on your cheeks, eyes, and forehead, for 30 seconds, holding your breath. Or a gel pack or ziplock of ice in the same place. The cold tricks a nerve that runs across your face into firing the same signal it would fire if you were underwater. Within 15 to 30 seconds your heart slows, blood moves toward your brain and core, and the parasympathetic side of your nervous system takes over.
This is the same reflex that lets seals stay calm under the ice. You have it too.
Use whenSUDs 80 and up. Panic, dissociation climbing, urge to self-harm climbing, the moment after a fight where your body is shaking and your thoughts are gone.
Medical cautionThe dive reflex slows the heart. If you have a low resting heart rate, an eating disorder with cardiac involvement, electrolyte instability, or take a beta-blocker, the full face-in-water version is not for you. Cold pack on the back of the neck or holding an ice cube in the hand still gives you a cold sensory anchor without the cardiac load. Check with your medical team.
Your body has already dumped adrenaline and is running cortisol. The point is not "exercise is healthy." The point is to spend what is already in your bloodstream, fast. Sprinting in place, jumping jacks, running stairs, push-ups to failure. Match the intensity of the emotion.
After about 15 to 20 minutes your nervous system reads the message that the threat has been responded to and starts to come down.
Use whenSUDs 80 and up, you have access to space, you are medically cleared. Especially good for the post-binge spiral, the post-fight body buzz, and the moment you almost left the house to do something you did not want to do.
Medical cautionIf you are on activity restriction, this skill is not currently yours. That is a medical floor, not a punishment, and not a sign your skill set is less than. Substitute with the breathing and muscle pieces. If you notice an urge to use exercise to compensate for food, that urge is information. Tell your individual therapist.
Try about 5 seconds in, 7 seconds out. The exhale is the part that activates the calming side of your nervous system. Lengthening it spends more time in that mode. Around six breaths per minute is the resonance frequency where the heart and the breath sync up and the system actually shifts. You will feel it in a few minutes.
This is the most portable piece. Nobody can see you doing it. You can do it under a desk, in a car, in a bathroom stall, on the bus.
Use whenSUDs 50 to 80. Pre-class panic, mid-test, mid-conversation with a parent, the moment you notice your shoulders have been by your ears for an hour.
Pick a muscle group. Fists, shoulders, jaw, feet, calves. Inhale and tense it for about 5 seconds. Exhale and release for about 10 seconds. Say the word "release" or "let go" in your head as you let go. Move to the next group.
The contrast between tense and released gives your nervous system a clear signal that something has changed. Pairing it with the breath compounds the effect.
Use whenSUDs 30 to 60. When you can't tell what your body is doing. When you are dissociating in a place you can't leave (classroom, family dinner). When you can't sleep because the day is still under your skin.
15 to 20 minThe TIPP thermometer
Drag the bar, click anywhere on the thermometer, or pick a scenario. The card on the right tells you which TIPP piece your body is asking for at that level. The point is not to memorize a chart. The point is to feel the matching: different SUDs, different skill.
Reaching for TIPP at SUDs 35 trains your nervous system to need bigger and bigger interventions for ordinary stress. Reaching for ACCEPTS at SUDs 90 fails because your thinking brain is offline, and then you decide "skills don't work for me." Match the dose to the moment.
10 minDiscussion
Pick the question that bothers you most. The one you almost want to skip is usually the one with something in it.
5 minPick one
One TIPP piece, one situation, one practice attempt. Not all four. Not "whenever I'm dysregulated." One.
One sentence
One thing you're taking with you, and one specific moment in the next 48 hours where you will try the piece you picked.
Push for specificity. "I'll try breathing when I'm stressed" is not a plan, it's a wish. "I'll do five rounds of paced breathing on the bus to school tomorrow morning" is a plan. The difference is whether the future self can find the moment.