Whether you are struggling with overwhelming emotions, racing thoughts, intrusive images, panic attacks, self-harm urges, flashbacks, physical pain, or just so much clutter in your head it's hard to think, turning to the skill of modulation can be one way to drop your anchor amidst a raging sea. Incorporating dials, specifically, into your mental imagery can take things one step further and put you in control of the very sea itself.
But, first things first! What is imagery?!
Imagery is a symptom management technique that uses the act of bringing images to mind - in a very vivid, intentional, and specific way - to improve our current circumstances. Typically, it aims to target a distressing symptom through creative means and bring it to a more manageable, peaceful place. To improve our chances of success, there are two important things we need to remember. First, we need to give ourselves the permission to commit fully to the process — truly believing that the things we're calling to mind are real, capable of making a difference, and as effective as we make them. …even when they seem silly or impossible. Second, as we begin to flesh out the scenery in our minds, we want to use as many of our senses as we’re able—bringing things into crisp, hyperrealistic detail, so much so you could almost reach out and touch it.
Okay! But, What is modulation?
Modulation is another coping tool that allows us to adjust the intensity of our experiences - capable of slowing things down or speeding them up, making things louder or softer, more crisp or blurrier, brighter or darker, more sensitive or completely numb. This can be incredibly helpful for any symptoms that feel out of our control or "too much". Modulation allows us to make careful, finely-tuned adjustments at our executive direction. It can be performed using physical objects, body movements, mental imagery, audio/musical input, or any combination of the above! (See our article on Color Breathing for another example!) Today, we're looking at modulation via imagery with dials.
With your mind's creativity as your only limit, there are infinite ways to incorporate dials into the wrangling of distressing symptoms. You can visualize ones that are attached to other objects - like the tuning and volume knobs of a radio that’s blaring the scratchy static, negative self-talk, or distressing sounds of a trauma into your skull. Or, you can imagine the knobs of a video projector - one that’s playing your flashbacks or the intrusive images you don't want to see up on a screen.
See the scene clearly in your mind's eye.
Watch yourself slowly turn the knobs - noticing the effect each one has on the clarity, pace of the audio or flickering images, and volume; the distortion of quality, amount of competing background noise, and ability to identify who is in it.
Keep turning them until you've made it unrecognizable - shrunk the images off-screen, cut the audio to a low hum, or created total silence.
Now, keep turning the knob until you hear - and feel - that satisfying CLICK into the off position.
Feel the relief wash over you.
Notice the silence.
Take a look at the blackened screens before you. Feel free to stand in the peaceful nothingness OR even turn different knobs to put pleasing imagery in its place—your favorite song, a slideshow of your safest places or loving pets, a silly gif, comedian to spark a laugh, or the sound of a reassuring mantra that keeps you rooted in today. Confident. Calm. In control.
You can also create dials that have never existed before. Realism can go out the window with imagery! So long as you believe it is capable of the tasks you've assigned, it's got you covered! Imagine instead a set of unique, customized knobs that are attached to any limbs currently in pain - ones you can turn any time you need relief. Or, escape to the cogs and gear systems right inside your mind, just behind your eyes. Dials on your temples could slow down internal noise or thoughts that are coming too fast. A pressure gauge and release valve could let out pressure that's built up in your skull - great for intense headaches, anxiety, and various chronic illnesses.
You can also combine imagery with physicality to amplify its physiologic impact. Perhaps, you could install a speedometer gauge on your chest, one that's connected to any time you 'pump the brakes' with your foot. This could be used to help slow down intense emotions, bring to a halt any unsafe impulses that were building up in your body, or just simply slow your panicked, racing heart. Adding in the tactile, and grounding, physical action of pushing your foot into the ground to ‘press the brake pedal' can amplify this strategy's effectiveness. You can also use pedals and odometers to rev things up, too - be it to amplify emotions if you've been too numb, increase the amount of pain relief you’re sending to hurting areas of the body, or boost the flow rate of positive self-talk, hope, or patience you may need. The same can be helpful just before scary tasks that may require difficult-to-access resources like motivation, confidence, or bravery.
Knobs lain out on a control panel within your body - like just behind your eyes or ears - can also distort the clarity of disturbing images, minimize them away from sight, turn off the flickering feature of a flashback, or swipe them out of the way completely. You could also place dials on body parts known for self-harm. While you may not feel ‘allowed' to turn some urges off entirely, you could spin the impulse through a color wheel gradient instead (after assigning colors to its intensity or type). You could also add buttons that release cold or warm sensations to the area under attack, numbing agents that would neutralize the "benefit" of any harm done to it anyway, or a surplus of TLC to any part of the body whose urges have already gone too far into the red. Similar options to these - like salves, anesthetics, relaxants, etc - can be employed for chronic pain, various disabilities, and acute injuries as well! Imagery and modulation skills can bring real relief to more than just psychological distress.
There are so many options at your fingertips when it comes to modulation and imagery. Get creative! (But, we do want to acknowledge that for some it just doesn’t come naturally. We also have a forthcoming article for those who have aphantasia or who just can’t quite get the hang of it!) Consider trying out multi-sensory knobs, like the ridged old TV knobs that make a hard, satisfying thunk when they're off. Or, experiment with more recent tech dials instead. Try out laptops or earbuds that make quieting tones each time you tap the volume down, or note the key clacking as you send information required to make factory machines and cogs move. The dials could also be futuristic, bio-mechanical, or involve android parts - things no one's ever seen! The important thing is that it feels accurate and beneficial to you and your symptoms. When it comes to reducing suffering, as well as adding more color to our lives, whatever works best for YOU is always the right choice.
We hope you feel a little freer to explore some new ways of managing your unruly symptoms as well as making the joy a little louder! Our minds are more powerful than we often give them credit, and we want to be sure you are armed with a tool belt as vast as you are.
Please feel free to share your ideas with others below! Your personal go-to hack for your most stubborn symptoms may be someone else's magic trick solution! Good luck, and as always, know that we're right here should you have any questions or need some fresh ideas!
Happy dialing!
MORE POSTS YOU MAY FIND HELPFUL:
✧ Grounding 101: 101 Grounding Techniques
✧ Distraction 101: 101 Distraction Tools
✧ Flashbacks 101: 4 Tools to Cope with Flashbacks
✧ Self-Care 101: 101 Self-Care Tools
✧ Nighttime 101 and Nighttime 201: Sleep Strategies for Complex PTSD
✧ Color Breathing 101: How to Calm Overwhelming Emotions and Physical Pain
✧ Imagery 101: Healing Pool and Healing Light
✧ DID Myths: Dispelling Common Misconceptions about Dissociative Identity Disorder
✧ Trauma and Attachment: 3-Part Series on Attachment Theory with Jade Miller
❖ Article Index ❖