1The pull towards bread, pasta and biscuits when you are low is not simply greed. Carbohydrate makes it easier for the brain to get hold of the raw material it needs for serotonin, so it gives a real if short lived lift.
Calling it self medication instead of a failure of character changes what you do next. You stop trying to out-discipline the craving and start asking what would meet the same need with a longer tail: eating something before you reach the desperate stage, protein alongside the carbohydrate, getting outside, company. The craving usually softens once the low is being met somewhere else as well.
Islamic evidence
Eat and drink with healthy enjoyment as a reward for what you have done (Quran 52:19). Enjoying food is described as a reward, not as something to be suspicious of.
“‘Eat and drink with healthy enjoyment as a reward for what you have done.’”
Qur'an 52:19
Psychological evidence
Across prospective cohorts, people eating closer to a healthy overall pattern had modestly lower odds of later depression. That finding is about the pattern of eating over time rather than single moments of craving, and it is observational, so other differences between those people could account for part of it. Still, it is a reason to look at the shape of the week rather than judging any one biscuit.
Lassale C, Batty GD, Baghdadli A, Jacka F, Sánchez-Villegas A, Kivimäki M, Akbaraly T. (2019). Molecular psychiatry · doi
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Why it works. Carbohydrate briefly helps the brain make serotonin, so reaching for it while low is the body finding the nearest lever.
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none yet2Cold water on your face, especially around the eyes and cheeks, slows things down fast. Splash it, or hold a cold flannel there for half a minute.
This is one of the few things that works when you are too far gone to concentrate on anything. It asks for no skill and no privacy beyond a tap. Lean over the sink, hold the cold against your face, breathe out slowly while it is there. If cold makes you flinch or feels punishing, leave it and use something warmer instead.
Islamic evidence
and sent down water from the sky to cleanse you (Quran 8:11). The same verse ends with hearts made strong and feet made firm, which is close to what you are reaching for at the sink.
“Remember when He gave you sleep as a reassurance from Him, and sent down water from the sky to cleanse you, to remove Satan’s pollution from you, to make your hearts strong and your feet firm”
Qur'an 8:11
Psychological evidence
There is no trial of face cooling in this evidence set, so treat the mechanism as a plausible one rather than a proven route. The nearest relevant study randomised people to hear relaxing music before a laboratory stressor and found their autonomic nervous system recovered faster, while the effect on cortisol was less clear. That much supports the general idea that a simple outside input can shift the body's state, without telling you how much cold water does.
Thoma MV, La Marca R, Brönnimann R, Finkel L, Ehlert U, Nater UM. (2013). PloS one · doi
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Why it works. Cold on the face triggers a reflex that slows the heart, and it does that without needing your cooperation.
When not to. Skip the cold if you have a heart condition, unless a doctor has told you it is fine.
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none yet3One of the earliest signs that you are drifting out of the present is that your hands and feet go vague. Not numb exactly, just less there.
It tends to happen before you notice you have gone anywhere. If you learn your own version of it, you get an early warning: a chance to press your feet down, hold something cold, or say out loud where you are, while all of that is still easy. Someone sitting with you may spot it before you do, in how still you have gone.
Islamic evidence
We shall show them Our signs in every region of the earth and in themselves (Quran 41:53). Some of the signs worth reading are as close as your own hands and feet.
“We shall show them Our signs in every region of the earth and in themselves, until it becomes clear to them that this is the Truth. Is it not enough that your Lord witnesses everything”
Qur'an 41:53
Psychological evidence
A meta-analysis in schizophrenia found that dissociative experiences and difficulty identifying one's own emotions were both raised compared with people without the diagnosis, at moderate size. That is a specific population, and the study does not test which comes first. So treat the hands and feet marker as a clinical observation worth watching for, not as something the literature has pinned down.
O'Driscoll C, Laing J, Mason O. (2014). Clinical psychology review · doi
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Why it works. The sense of where your body is fades before your sense of the conversation does, so it warns you first.
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none yet4When what is happening inside gets too loud, turn outward. Name what you can see, listen for the furthest sound, press your feet into the floor.
This is not avoidance. The outward senses and the sense of where your body sits both carry information about now, which is exactly what the flooding is missing. Stay there until the volume drops. You can go back inside later, and often you will want to.
Islamic evidence
when their very souls closed in around them (Quran 9:118). The verse names that shut in feeling exactly, and what follows it there is mercy rather than blame.
“And to the three men who stayed behind: when the earth, for all its spaciousness, closed in around them, when their very souls closed in around them, when they realized that the only refuge from God was with Him, He turned to them in mercy in order for them…”
Qur'an 9:118
Psychological evidence
A conceptual review draws a line between attending to bodily sensation and worrying about it, and argues the two have opposite implications for wellbeing. Flooding sits on the worrying side of that line. Stepping out to the room is a way of stopping the worried kind of monitoring without having to suppress anything.
Mehling W. (2016). Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences · doi
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Why it works. The outer senses report on the present, so they crowd out a signal that is coming from the past.
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none yet5Breath work goes straight into the body, and for some people that is the problem. If your panic has ever been about not getting enough air, putting your attention on your breathing can set it off rather than settle it.
Asthma, a history of choking or smothering, panic that arrives through the chest: any of these makes the breath a loaded place to put your attention. It does not mean this is closed to you. It means starting somewhere gentler, keeping the practice short, and stopping the moment air hunger appears.
Islamic evidence
He closes and constricts their breast as if they were climbing up to the skies (Quran 6:125). The verse is speaking about guidance rather than panic, but the sensation it names, a chest that will not open, is one plenty of people know from the inside.
“When God wishes to guide someone, He opens their breast to islam; when He wishes to lead them astray, He closes and constricts their breast as if they were climbing up to the skies. That is how God makes the foulness of those who do not believe rebound…”
Qur'an 6:125
Psychological evidence
In a controlled comparison, people with panic disorder and generalised anxiety disorder had lower resting heart rate variability than healthy controls and reacted more strongly to a hyperventilation challenge. That is a direct measure of the thing to be careful about: over-breathing sets off far more in some bodies than in others. The study compared groups rather than testing a treatment, so it warns rather than prescribes.
Pittig A, Arch JJ, Lam CW, Craske MG. (2013). International journal of psychophysiology : official journal of the International Organization of Psychophysiology · doi
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Why it works. Attention on the breath makes small changes in breathing feel large, and for some people those sensations are where panic begins.
When not to. If breathing exercises reliably bring on panic for you, this belongs with someone trained in trauma work rather than in a practice you do alone.
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none yet6For when you are stuck in shutdown there is a faster practice: short sharp exhales driven from the belly, letting each in breath happen by itself, about twenty of them.
It is meant to rouse, so expect to feel more awake and a little buzzy afterwards rather than calm. Twenty is plenty. Sit down before you start so that stopping is easy, and stop earlier than planned if you feel dizzy or light headed.
Islamic evidence
he cried out in the deep darkness (Quran 21:87). The first move out of that dark was an act rather than a mood, which is the spirit of this one.
“And remember the man with the whale,when he went off angrily, thinking We could not restrict him, but then he cried out in the deep darkness, ‘There is no God but You, glory be to You, I was wrong.’”
Qur'an 21:87
Psychological evidence
Direct evidence for rapid breathing practices is scarce, and one finding is worth knowing first. In a controlled study, people with panic disorder and generalised anxiety disorder reacted more strongly than others to a hyperventilation challenge. Deliberate fast breathing is not that challenge, but it moves in the same direction, so if your anxiety arrives as breathlessness this is the practice to leave alone.
Pittig A, Arch JJ, Lam CW, Craske MG. (2013). International journal of psychophysiology : official journal of the International Organization of Psychophysiology · doi
Review detail
Why it works. Fast forceful breathing pushes the body towards alertness, which is the opposite of what most breathing advice is aiming at.
When not to. Skip it entirely with high blood pressure, heart disease, glaucoma or pregnancy, and skip it when you are already anxious rather than flat.
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none yet7When you find yourself reaching for something sweet again, try asking what the reaching is doing for you instead of telling yourself off. Comfort, a small rebellion, a way to stay awake: the answer usually points somewhere useful.
Talk about being good or bad closes the conversation down. Curiosity keeps it open, and it tends to surface the actual job the food is doing, which is often soothing something that has nowhere else to go. Once you know what it is for, you can look for a second way of meeting the same need rather than running on willpower alone. Slower, but it holds.
Islamic evidence
If anyone is forced to eat such things by hunger, rather than desire or excess, he commits no sin: God is most merciful and forgiving (Quran 2:173). Need is told apart from craving without the person in need being condemned, which is the tone to take with yourself here.
“He has only forbidden you carrion, blood, pig’s meat, and animals over which any name other than God’s has been invoked. But if anyone is forced to eat such things by hunger, rather than desire or excess, he commits no sin: God is most merciful and forgiving”
Qur'an 2:173
Psychological evidence
Among 59 women, those under chronic stress showed a distinct pattern connecting comfort eating, abdominal fat and a blunted stress hormone response. It offers a physiological account of why stress steers people towards calorie dense food, so the pull is not simply a matter of resolve. The study was small and observational, so take it as a plausible mechanism rather than a rule about anyone in particular.
Tomiyama AJ, Dallman MF, Epel ES. (2011). Psychoneuroendocrinology · doi
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Why it works. A habit that is doing a job for you will keep coming back until the job gets done some other way.
When not to. If you are managing diabetes, this sits alongside your medical plan rather than in place of it.