Though, learning how to do so can incredibly fuel your “rocket” in life.
When I say “first aid”, I am sure the first thing that comes to your mind is medical emergencies. As an amazingly effective way of approaching psychological emergencies, however, there is a framework that we psychologists use to help crisis situations.
Adapting this framework is helpful not only in crisis but also in everyday life. Well, yes, I personally use it, too. Yes, it is a scientific framework. No, you don’t need to worry; it is totally doable.
Because it is not rocket science! However, if you learn and adapt it in your daily life; it has the potential to refill your rocket R-A-P-I-D-LY!
Having said that, an approach called RAPID is a framework for psychological first responders to approach people in times of emergencies, trauma, disasters, wars, mass incidents, etc. Not going that far, life is full of small to large-sized crises on a daily basis, right? So, why not modify this extremely effective technique according to your needs…
Here let’s start by understanding what RAPID is first:
R: Reflective Listening
A: Assessing the situation
P: Prioritizing the need
I: Intervening to the situation
D: Dispositioning with the outcomes
Easier said than done, I know. Yet, these fancy initial letters are so powerful that they can immediately eliminate and mitigate many risk factors. Let me walk over them very briefly and explain how we use them in a mental health crisis.
Let’s say Angela is experiencing incredible stress about what happened to the rest of her family after the hurricane. She doesn’t know whether they are alive or dead. Everyone is all over the place. She is staying in temporary shelters and lost their corner grocery store she was running with her family.
I will tell you how I can apply RAPID for Angela as a psychological first aid. Then, I will explain step by step how this framework can work for pretty much everything you or the people around you are experiencing.
1. Reflective Listening
Before anything else, I have to listen. People sometimes ask me how do I know what to do with someone who is having a mental health breakdown. That sounds uncertain, right? Yes, it is uncertain. It is hard to know what to do in advance. And I don’t know. But in fact, I don’t need to know in advance either. To understand what to do, I follow their story. To lead the situation, I need to follow what is going on with a genuine interest.
This means not jumping to conclusions.
Not assuming.
Not underestimating or overestimating.
But just reflecting by listening.
Even mental health professionals sometimes fail to devise shortcuts. However, the same exact situation can result in two totally different ways, whereas two totally different situations can result in the same exact results. It is not like “water boils at 100C.”
Human beings have emotions and individual differences. So we can boil, freeze and evaporate at different temperatures.
Thinking about Angela’s situation above. I might have an idea that she would immediately need a new job as she lost their family business. You might assume right away that she is grieving after her family as she is desperately one hundred percent sure that they are dead. Another person might be expecting Angela to be grateful that she at least has a shelter to sleep in.
What is missing here? Neither of us didn’t ask Angela!
Once we ask by taking an interest in how Angela really feels, she will open herself and tell us what is going on and what she needs. So listening is the number one thing to do. And think of how, if it works in these very tough crisis situations, it can work easily and better in everyday instances.
Listen to yourself reflectively. Ask yourself reflective questions. Don’t jump to conclusions. Even if it is you and if you think you know yourself very well, take a novel interest and ask yourself compassionately:
“Hey, tell me what happened. What do you need right now? What would be great for you?”
Believe me, self-talk is very effective. Maybe it is one of the few things you have control over in the world: Your words towards yourself.
2. Assessment
Once you listen to Angela, you can assess what she really needs. The same is true for yourself. Once you start listening to yourself, you are more likely to assess what you really need.
Ask non-judgmentally, and answer unbiasedly. You can even voice up and try really to hear your answer. Role-play! It sounds weird to talk with yourself. However, as I have said, maybe the words you tell yourself are one of those few things you have amazingly complete control over. Listen to what you need.
Be careful. I didn’t say listen to what you want. Sometimes, what you want is not what you need. For instance, you may be stressed out at work or with your partner and want one more cigarette to calm your nerves. Is smoking what you need? It is what you want.
What you want is not always what you need.
You said you need to calm your nerves. How about taking a walk break? Going to the bathroom? Drinking water? Calling a loved one? Your aim was not to smoke but to calm your nerves. Smoking was what you thought could work for your needs. But… What might be working for you? It is like interviewing yourself with a solution focus, not with a problem focus.
Thinking about Angela, you would be hearing what she needs. Killing herself? A job? A list of survivors to see whether her family is found there? Bottles of wine to forget what happened? A shelter? Is she hungry right now?
Don’t rush! The more you ask with open-minded curiosity, the more you will be hearing. Some might be totally ridiculous and based on hot emotions (such as suicide or alcohol abuse), some might be very indicative of what she needs. Pretty similarly, you will be hearing your own list from yourself. Now is the time to rule out the dysfunctional ones and prioritize among those that you hear as functional.
3. Prioritization
One thing at a time. You cannot pour everything on the table. Even you figured out what she needs, Angela cannot be going to the shelter, applying for a job, eating something solid, and reading the list of other survivors to see whether her family survived or not, right at the same exact time. You need to prioritize to help her.
Which one comes first? Which are doable? What comes after? In our work on mental health crises, this is called “triage.” Tirage comes from French and means assigning degrees of urgency.
This is a sorting and planning phase. As a very famous quote attributed to Alan Lakein says,
Failing to plan is planning to fail.
Of course, it is easier with someone to aid you such as a crisis specialist. However, why I am telling you about this framework is to give you an understanding so that you can aid yourself with daily hassles and crisis. Not during a life crisis. Still, you might benefit from knowing these on every occasion where your executive functions are steady enough.
There are many things you can use to triage your needs. Feel free to be creative. You know yourself better. Maybe journaling? Maybe drawing? Maybe mind-mapping? Maybe counting and ranking? Maybe card sorting?
The last one is my favorite. I write things separately on post-its and then sort them regarding relevance, urgency, feasibility, and so forth. Depending on the situation, I also combine this with the other techniques. Honestly, you don’t need to end up with a crisis. Sometimes, even creating a to-do list requires some level of triage.
I could help Angela the same way. Let’s write down what great looks like to you. Then, having a bird' s-eye view of these needs/items will help Angela and me prioritize what comes first. We could end up having her something to eat first and then look to the survivors' list. Or vice versa. Again, as there is no “one size fits all” solution, there is no “the same size fits one every time” solution, either.
The same applies to you. Maybe taking a break for a short walk is not feasible, but you can go to the bathroom or drink water first. You can call a loved one to set a plan for a walk and talk after work. Or the scenario can be totally different. Know your needs, order, and re-order them whenever you need them. Be flexible. Allow yourself to vary in terms of your needs and their urgency. Once you are spontaneously available here and now for yourself, it is time to take action.
4. Intervention
This is the action phase. Creativity plays a role here. Creation means action. For a mental health crisis, that means following a treatment plan. Maybe linking to a health provider, maybe filling out some forms necessary for a higher level of care. Or sometimes, we have enough sources to help the case and provide other sources if necessary.
The intervention is interacting with Angela by aligning her needs. You offered her a lunch box, and when she is done eating, you show her where she can stay. Then you agreed to meet tomorrow to sit down together to fill out the unemployment papers until she is stable enough to find a job.
Same with you. Likewise, your own intervention to yourself needs to include an action that fits your prioritized needs.
There is no action without interaction. Interact with yourself!
Once you have prioritized your needs and put them in order, you are now ready to act upon them. Take a few sips of water while you are still on your desk. Walk towards the bathroom and pee. Or don’t. Maybe you were hungry instead. Perhaps you then start walking in the office garden for 3 minutes. What about washing your face instead of rushing to call your partner to yell about all of your work problems right away when this desire emerges? You already prioritized these. Act according to what you assessed as to your prior needs.
Don’t hesitate to be creative. Honestly, I cannot give examples of every single life incident, so I keep this very simple scenario as an example. But, this is your life. So, if you follow these steps, you will know what is going on, you will assess your needs, you will prioritize them, and then intervene accordingly.
Here you come to the end of your intervention.
Remember to create your deliberate action and interact with yourself compassionately:
creation → action → interaction
Now, it is time to follow up with yourself.
5. Disposition
Congratulations! You have reached the last step in checking what is going on.
To see whether everything is okay now, you need to see the current disposition.
Let’s say you meet with Angela or call her the next day, or a couple of weeks later, depending on what your intervention was. Ask her how she is doing, whether she is practicing new coping skills you have taught, if she needs anything else, and so on.
Be sure that the crisis has stabilized. Then, you can leave her to her life’s natural flow until another crisis occurs. And hopefully, there is not, but if there is another life crisis or mental health crisis, it is so okay to start from the beginning.
I have seen so many people, sometimes several times, sometimes for the same crisis, sometimes for something else that is totally new. Even for the same person, needs can change and you might need to reorder what you have assessed earlier.
Similarly, you can check with yourself, like measuring your own blood pressure, body fever, or insulin level. Measure your mood.
After your self-intervention, how do you feel now? Did it work? How else you can use this best information for your future crisis? At the end of the day, psychological first aid is not knowing everything in advance but leading the situation by following the indicators and outcomes.
You don’t need to be a psychologist to use psychological first aid principles. They are for everyone since we belong to a common humanity.
What we suffer from can change. But we all suffer! Helping someone else and helping ourselves are not totally different things.
Maybe you realized that meditating, journaling, jogging, cooking… helped you. Great!
However, sometimes, you might not have enough sources to help yourself at this point. Still, if you think applying these to your own problems is not enough, this is also enough of self-help and self-care. That means you need a higher level of care. And congratulations, you accomplished assessing this need. Referring yourself to someone who can take care of this crisis is also a great intervention. Maybe a friend, maybe a professional, maybe a clinic, maybe to a lawyer and a court, maybe to a mentor or coach, depending on what the circumstances are. Then, to check whether this works or not is also the dispositioning phase.
Bravo, you completed your own first psychological first aid by yourself rapidly!
Really, and R-A-P-I-D-ly :)
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