Unique Coping Skills: Share Yours!

Also I have texted the National crisis hotline, (it’s for all of mental health) and has been helped a lot. You text HOME to 741741 I will text them when I’m having panic attacks and I’m alone. It’s helped me be able to calm down sooner and not get to such an anxious state.

I don’t really know if this counts but I try to be very gentle with myself when my brain doesn’t like me. Like I’ll actively say in my head “shhh, it’s okay, it’s alright that you’re feeling this way and you’re allowed to feel this way”. The self-acceptance and the gentle “shh”s have helped me

I just started doing this and found it very helpful. I say out loud every movie I can think of. I really like Disney so now I say every character I can possibly think of. It puts my head in a different space, and has been helpful. Also playing with play dough.

A lot of mindfulness exercises helps a lot. It would be too long to type on here so o would suggest trying to find one on YouTube. One of my favorites involves the idea of thinking your thoughts as just passing trains or recognizing that your thoughts are just thoughts and not reality. Another one that I like I looking for objects that match the rainbow colors. I’ll for for an object that’s red, then orange, then yellow, etc.

One that I haven’t heard many talk about is I do this thing where I count to 10 when I’m in a stressful situation. An example being I hate the dentist so when I get my cavities filled I will sit there and close my eyes and count to 10 and tell myself you just survived 10 seconds you can survive 10 more and do it again. I basically do that until I’m not longer anxious. It’s a lot easier breaking time up into small sections rather than think of the whole thing at once.