Using the “0 to 10” Scale with your Support Team

The next four pages are designed to share with the members of your “support team.” These
pages introduce and explain the “0 to 10” scale. Many people with PDA, and their support
people, have found it very helpful to use this tool.

Read through the next four pages, and decide if you’d like to share them with members of
your support team.
 My “0 to 10” scale

One of the tools for recovery that I'm practicing is to observe my anxiety on a scale of 0 to 10.
It's helpful sometimes to share my number with you. This helps me practice my “observing”
skill, and it communicates to you how challenging my experience is. Observing my anxiety
and sharing my number with you in this way helps me cope and helps me make progress in
my recovery.

When I share my number with you, your job is very easy: all you have to do is listen. You
don't have to do anything. Whatever my number is, you don’t have to worry. Anxiety and
panic are uncomfortable, but not dangerous. And when I experience discomfort, that is
actually part of the recovery process.

So, on the scale from “0 to 10”, “0” is when I feel completely calm and peaceful and safe.
And “10” is the best panic attack I can have: the one that would win the first prize in a contest.
Here’s what the numbers mean:

0: completely calm

1: very comfortable

2 or 3: low anxiety

4 to 6: moderate anxiety

7 or 8: high anxiety

9 or 10: a panic attack: extremely unpleasant, but not dangerous. A panic attack
generally lasts only a few minutes.
 Advantages of Using the “0 to 10” Scale

Using the “0 to 10” scale can be tremendously helpful.

Let me give you an example. Let's say I’m doing something very challenging, I’m experiencing
high anxiety, and I’m with a support person. I could try to explain what I’m experiencing. But
unless my support person has personally experienced something similar, it will be hard to explain.
I could talk about it for 20 minutes, and my support person might still really have no idea what it
feels like!

Now, let's say instead of trying to explain the experience, I just tell my support person my anxiety
number, on my “0 to 10” scale. Anyone can understand that pretty easily. It takes me about five
seconds to tell my number, and it actually communicates more information to my support person.
It lets him or her know exactly how challenging it is. I’m not trying to get my support person to
understand the experience, which can be very frustrating, and – believe it or not – is really not
that important anyway.

Here’s another big advantage of using the 0 to 10 scale when I talk about my anxiety: I might
spend only a few seconds talking about my anxiety, and the rest of the time, I can focus on my
recovery tools and other things I’m doing. This is a lot more helpful for recovery, and probably a
lot more fun for my support person!
 10 Tips for Becoming a Great “Support Person”

1) Acknowledge the suffering

2) Appreciate how challenging the condition is

3) Be patient

4) Be supportive

5) Don’t criticize

6) Don’t push:

One of the keys to recovery is learning to take small steps,

at one’s own pace.

7) Don’t overreact to the symptoms:

Symptoms are scary, but not dangerous.

Trying to take away the scary feelings is actually not helpful,

because true recovery means learning to deal with the scary
feelings on one’s own.

8) Give gentle encouragement

9) Give recognition for small steps and small successes

10) Learn more about PDA (panic disorder & agoraphobia).

Go to paniccure.com and click on “Introduction to Recovery”.

Copyright © 2010, Triumph Over Panic, Inc. All rights reserved.