I took ten days off from writing for self-repair. Mis-managing myself from the 13th to the 15th led to extreme anxiety and necessitated that I pull back from my writing schedule to focus on getting balanced once more. Fortunately, that experience leads me into this return article about an activity called a Behavior Chain Analysis.

It’s about identifying a negative behavior, the corresponding upstream precipitants and downstream consequences, and options to prevent similar instances in the future. Effectively, you’re de-bugging your daily operating system. At the end of this article I’ll include a PDF download of a Behavior Chain Analysis (BCA) form that you can fill out if you’d like try. This isn’t something I do every week, but it’s a handy tool for reviewing what happened when life came harder and faster than I was prepared for.

1. Problem Behavior

   • Skipping out on a post-Championship game lunch with my crew, and sleeping most of the following 36 hours.

2. Prompting Event

   • Stayed awake until 2AM on 5/14. Slept until 11AM and then was interviewed for a podcast about mental health and my experiences with suicide at 12PM.

3. Vulnerability Factors

   • Lack of adequate rest.

   • Little preparation time for a deeply personal interview.

   • No pre- or post-self-soothe strategies used to calm myself.

   • No meaningful break between my intensely physical work week and the interview.

   • Anxiety over the game the next day.

4. Chain of Events

   • Set up the interview for 5/14 at 12PM est to accommodate the UK time difference with my interviewer. I underestimated how much time my body would need to recover from a strenuous work week in high heat and sun.

   • Came home on 5/13 exhausted, but unable to rest. Stress ate and watched YouTube videos instead.

   • Poor sleep hygiene in the evening led to restlessness, and I scrolled my phone until 2AM.

   • Woke up at 11AM disoriented and unrested. Rushed to prep my physical appearance for the interview, but did not do any activities that would calm my system.

   • Had an excellent interview with an engaging host.

   • Logged off mentally fried and deeply introspective (not an uncommon experience after examining my past suicidal experiences).

   • Put on comfy clothes and got back under the covers. Woke up hours later for a light dinner, then went back to sleep.

   • Woke up at 8:45AM, rushed to pack my officiating gear, and arrived at the game site at 10AM.

   • Familiar faces and my routine calmed me down for the game. Game went great, but it was unusually hot and I had poorly fueled my body during the previous 48 hours. Anxiety naturally increased in a loud environment with many people.

   • Returned to the officials locker room physically drained and mentally frayed. The thought of interacting any further spiked my fears and I declined to join my crew for lunch. Instead using the next hour to do some much needed breathing exercises.

   • Drove home, put my phone on silent, and stayed in bed most of the weekend.

5. Consequences

   • Rising anxiety outpaced my efforts to decrease it.

   • Lost out on a good time with friends.

   • More time spent in my head than in the moment.

   • Isolated myself and did not prepare for the upcoming work week as usual.

6. Potential for Skill Usage

   1. T.I.P.P. - could have been used in the hour before my interview to snap myself back into the present.

   2. H.A.L.T. - could have helped me identify my needs earlier.

   3. Guided Meditation - best when I’m physically drained and want to lie down.

   4. Wise Mind - could have been used to determine if I was in a good position to do an interview.

   5. Problem Solving - could have been used to schedule a later time for the interview or a different day.

   6. Cope Ahead - could have rescheduled the interview.

7. Prevention Strategy

   • More emphasis on balancing reason and emotion in Wise Mind would have helped me recognize that an intensely emotional conversation probably isn’t the best when sandwiched between a physical work week and a Championship lacrosse game. This entire chain of events is avoided if I had scheduled the interview for the following week.

8. Repair

   • Work on becoming more aware of when I may be overloading my schedule.

   • Prioritize my wellbeing when considering optional activities to my week.

   • Remind myself that each time I do an interview is draining in some respect. Always have a day dedicated to self-soothe strategies before or after, ideally both.

BCAs are a comprehensive review of what went wrong. In many respects, it’s what I do in my talks to officiating groups about failure. Negative experiences and being unable or unwilling to do the behaviors we know are best for us can stand as identifiers that we are not living up to some arbitrary standard, or they can simply be data points that identify what didn’t work. While I prefer the latter, my M.O. is being more likely to beat myself up while going through whatever I’m going through.

That is why I left my laptop at home this past week and stayed in the hotel with my Kindle and SportsCenter after work. I needed a reset and to limit myself to just what was necessary. Now that I gained space from the couple of days that drained me, I’m mentally available to analyze what happened.

Has something happened recently where you responded less than what was best for you? Then it may be time for a Behavior Chain Analysis. Click on this link or the image below to download a PDF format with prompts, and refer back to this post to review my example. I hope that adding this tool to your toolbox will aid you in becoming more aware of making healthier future choices.