If I see that my state has dropped, then the first thing that matters to me is preventing the situation from getting worse:

- if talking to someone starts to feel uncomfortable, I distance myself from that person in proportion to how much my state has worsened;
- if someone is annoying online, then it is “don’t disturb” / restrict / block;
- if the harm is coming from contact with someone close to me, then I say what exactly did not feel right to me.
*If it is hard for me to tell in the moment what exactly affected me, then I say that. The way the person responds gives me immediate context: either after taking some time to think, I will be able to talk through what happened; or the person is not actually that close anymore :));
- if I notice that my state is getting worse while I’m out and I don’t understand why, I go home or somewhere else, depending on what I prefer at that moment;
- if the process itself is irritating me, I pause it;
- if I’m irritated by how things currently are or I don’t understand why my state has worsened, then I move on to the next steps of the algorithm.

My main focus is my state. Ignoring what I’m experiencing is taboo.
Because the context in which something happens is not only what I see in front of me. It is also the way my past has left its mark on me. And if my reaction goes beyond how I want to behave, I try even more to direct all my attention toward helping myself rather than reinforcing destructive thought patterns.

That is why:
- under no circumstances will I try to convince myself that “everything is fine, there is nothing to worry about”;
- I don’t play “fake it till you make it” by forcing myself to stay in destructive discomfort in order to “change my future reactions”;
- I block destructive thought patterns like “it is only a little unpleasant, nothing serious / I will get used to it in a second / it will be over soon anyway, etc.”;
- I’m not interested in what anyone might think of me – “it would be awkward to leave now”;
- etc.