As a night shift Psych nurse basically my entire job is re-tuning people’s circadian rhythms. For this specific situation I recommend getting used to sleeping to a loud white noise with a fair amount of variation in pitches / “texture” I guess? The more different noises it has the better it covers random environmental noises.
My go-to is usually a raging thunderstorm with lots of lightning cracks and rumbling thunder. There’s very few things that doesn’t drown out and it should only take a week or two to get used to sleeping to whatever soundtrack you pick (think about how long it takes to get used to sleeping somewhere new when you move).
For extra oomph it can help to bring in your other senses as well. Essential oils may not cure cancer but they make excellent Pavlovian conditioning cues.
Remember kids, the biggest difference between you and Pavlov’s dogs is that you get to choose what you get trained to do!
I find it helpful to think of it like emotional asthma. She’s a little wheezy right now. She should probably take things a little easier. She might need a puff of her “inhaler” (although if she does have rescue meds for mental health it’s probably a pill) but ultimately that’s her private business. She’s not doing her best but that also doesn’t necessarily mean she needs to be committed or even necessarily inpatient. Suicidal ideation can absolutely be managed outpatient in a lot of cases as long as there’s no active plan / intent and there’s a solid safety plan in place.
In fact if you’re interested in learning more about safety planning and other things you can personally do to manage your own mental health you should come join us over at [email protected] We also have a wiki that specifically includes a page on safety planning!