🧠 Mental Health & Resilience Basics

---

Why It Matters

Field work, dispatch, and community defense can bring emotional overload, anxiety, and fatigue.
Unmanaged stress can lead to mistakes, frozen reactions, or burnout that hurt individuals and teams.
Resilience skills help everyone stay effective, safe, and steady.

---

What You'll Learn

1. Grounding Techniques – Simple, fast ways to stabilize yourself or others.
2. Recognizing Stress Signals – Physical, cognitive, and emotional warning signs.
3. Peer Support Basics – Check-in methods that stabilize without probing trauma.
4. Boundaries & Self-Care – Knowing when to pause, step away, or call for help.
5. Resource Handoffs – How to quickly connect someone with mental health or crisis support.

---

Grounding Techniques

• 5-4-3-2-1 Method:
  Name 5 things you see, 4 you feel, 3 you hear, 2 you smell, 1 you taste.
• Tactical Breathing (Box Breathing):
  Inhale 4, hold 4, exhale 4, hold 4. Repeat 3–5 cycles.
• Bilateral Stimulation:
  Tap your thighs alternately or walk with focused left-right steps.
• Grounding Script (for others):
  "Can you name 5 things you can see right now? Let’s slow your breathing together for a moment."

---

Recognizing Stress Signals

• Physical: Tremors, tunnel vision, nausea, shaking hands.
• Cognitive: Confusion, memory gaps, distorted sense of time.
• Emotional: Numbness, inappropriate laughter, rage, crying.
• Behavioral: Withdrawal, risk-taking, perfectionism, freezing.

---

Peer Support Basics

• The 3-Minute Check-In:
  1. "How’s your body right now?"
  2. "What do you need in this moment?"
  3. "Can I help you get it?"
• Non-Intrusive Language:
  "I notice you seem shaky. Want to take a breather with me?"
• Consent First: Always ask before offering touch, movement, or specific interventions.

---

Stress Response Flow

---

Quick Action Steps

1. Practice 2–3 grounding techniques daily, even when calm.
2. Pair up for emotional check-ins during actions.
3. Know your limits — if you shake, feel lightheaded, or can’t focus, step back and alert your buddy or dispatcher.
4. Save local mental health hotlines, warm lines, and mutual aid contacts in your phone and offline kit.

---

Risks & Red Lines

• Never force anyone to talk about trauma or accept touch.
• Never block someone from leaving if they need space.
• Adapt techniques — some prefer prayer, silence, or movement over talking.
• Your job is to stabilize, not treat trauma or diagnose.

---

Scenario Drill

"Your buddy freezes and stares blankly during a chaotic moment:

1. Move them to a quieter space if safe.
2. Use a grounding technique (5-4-3-2-1 or tactical breathing).
3. Ask: “What do you need right now?”
4. Decide whether to return, rest, or escalate to a care lead or dispatcher."

---

Checklist

• Can perform at least 2 grounding techniques on yourself and others.
• Can recognize 3+ physical or emotional stress signals.
• Has practiced these techniques under simulated stress.
• Knows local mental health and crisis contacts by memory or quick reference.
• Can differentiate stress vs. trauma responses and escalate appropriately.
• Has identified personal stress warning signs and shared them with a buddy.

---

Resource Appendix

• Pocket Resilience Guide (quick grounding scripts & signals checklist).
• Crisis Text Line (US): Text 741741 for 24/7 support.
• Warm Line Directory: For non-crisis emotional support (links provided).
• Trauma-Sensitive Yoga & Breathwork Resources for volunteers.
• Role-Playing Cards (panic attack, emotional overwhelm, freeze response scenarios).