What do you do to comfort yourself?

[UnashamedAndAshamed]

Kittieface:

I bet it's still Metallica and Iron Maiden lol. You can't get away from that time. That's when metal was at its finest!

LOL!

[Chisa]

lie in bed and watch episodes of castle

[didbakenaked]

I eat almost every time I have anxiety. After that doesn't help I will hug my dog, write a journal entry to try to make sense of it. When that doesn't work, I go for a run, (if I didn't eat enough to incapacitate myself). When running doesn't work, I will try to watch a movie or show to numb my feelings. All these things could go on for hours or days, then I cry about something not necessarily related to any of the anxiety, talk about my feelings with a friend, and then I feel so much relief!

[Syuni]

I haven't had the best of luck finding something nondestructive to calm me down during a high anxiety attack. One thing that I notice that does work is cleaning. There are times when people are over and I have no choice on the matter I just start cleaning the house. It gives me something to focus my energy on so my anxiety doesn't get too high and I resort to my destructive tactics without realizing it (I tend to scratch my arms raw). My husband's father comes over randomly and although I love him, he talks for a very long time and does not come even close to comprehending introvertedness, social anxiety, and he's the world's worst at interpreting body language. So I clean, and clean, and clean. Sadly this does not work when I'm not at the house.

But in general, like a previous poster, video games make me feel better. I play many different types of games, but I will play MMOs for hours upon hours. It keeps my mind from going to dark places. My mind goes to these dark places less now that I'm on medicine, but it still happens on my bad days. I've also gotten into crafts, I watch TV shows while working on video game and pop culture cross stitch projects. It gives me goals to achieve and the feeling of accomplishment when I finish them is awesome.

I have a lot of anxiety about cooking. When I cook my anxiety is always at near max, and if I mess anything up it overflows and I break down. For some reason, me ruining food is one of the things that can instantly shoot my anxiety up in the danger zone. Only if I do it, though. I'm incredibly forgiving when other people do it, to the point that I will somehow blame myself for it (that's a common thing for me on anything). One tactic that works WONDERS for me is I plug up happy dance music, drink a beer, and cook tipsy. I know it can't help everyone, alcohol can be a terrible thing for people. But I'm a lightweight happy drunk, and it gets me tipsy enough to lose my worries about the food. I just dance and cook. It's one of the happiest and freeing feelings I've ever felt. I feel normal, like all my anxieties have gone away. I am still careful though, my dad is an alcoholic and one of my fears is becoming him. But I control this by just drinking a single beer on occasion while cooking and DANCING THE NIGHT AWAY.

[Lilac]

Wow! It is s o great that so many people have so many different coping skills. I have recently found that making art is a great way to get out of my head. I love to paint and make sculpture. I guess the trendy term is upcycling.. I have made a peacock out of old whisky barrels and am starting to make potting benches out od old doors and shutters. Three cheers for art! I get to escape AND have an awesome piece of art for my yard. It is a double bonus!

[anymomentinthewoods]

I love seeing all the ways that you all cope. It's so wonderful that each person has a different way or that people miles and miles away that have never met sometimes have the same way to get by.

I have to listen to or watch something in order to get by. Generally it's something funny or something really sappy and sweet. I have certain podcasts (Mental Illness Happy Hour included) that I listen to or shows that make me happy. In fact, it's really weird, but I love magical girl anime. If you don't know what those are, they're shows with little girls or teenagers as super heroes. I love to watch those when depressed or anxious because their universes can be so simple. The only wrong in the world is the villain and at the end, friendship wins the day. I guess part of me too wishes that depression were as easy as a talking to and a magic spell.

[SunWorshipper]

I still have my 'blankie' after all these years. I run my fingers over it again and again. It is the texture of the thing that does it for me. sometimes when I am nervous out in public in the winter, i can stick my fingers in my jacket pocket and find that same texture there and sooth myself. I am proud to still have my blankie and refused to get rid of it when my husband said i 'should.'
other things... doing artwork (more crafty things as much as art) , spending quiet petting time with the kitties, digging furiously in the garden, pulling weeds, ripping nasty wild grape vines out of the trees that they are strangling, riding my bike, lying on the bare floor with my legs stuck up against the wall, drinking hot sweet herbal tea, watching Little House on the Prairie, browsing YouTube for vids that are guaranteed to make me laugh.

[littlem]

Love seeing all the ways everyone comforts themselves. Interesting to see where some match with mine.

The biggest one for me is doing breath-work. I try to take long, deep breaths, centre myself, and focus on my breathing. I find it really helps bring me back to the "now" rather than all the "what if's" that are screaming around in my head.

Music helps too, I think in the same way. I like lying in the dark with headphones on, or sometimes blasting my favourite songs really loud and dancing in my pj's, depending on how severe my anxiety is (darkness and headphones when it's bad, obviously!).

Writing is the final thing. When my depression and anxiety was at it's worst, I wrote a TON. Sometimes it was journal entries, sometimes fiction, sometimes poetry. But it helped to get my feelings down on paper in whatever way I could. I think that's why I like forums like this one too--it helps to put my feelings down into words, with the added bonus of a non-judgemental community to read them (thanks guys!).

Talking to my husband and allowing him to comfort me helps too. He's a big bear and gives great hugs I should probably do that more often, but, typical anxious person, I tend to bottle things up and think things over until I can't hold it in anymore.

[rlmo]

What seems to work best for me is to lie down on my bed with my keyboard on my lap, close my eyes and just start typing. Most of the time I type "I don't have anything to say" over and over again until something pops into my head and I type it out. Sometimes what I say is coherent, but sometimes it isn't. I like that I am not looking at what I type because if I know I've made a mistake, I can't go back to correct it. I have to just keep going.

[Averagejoe]

I find that if I put on the right kind of music, it can usually turn it around. For me I always throw on Tenacious D, it's the one band whose songs I know nearly all the lyrics to so I can immediately concentrate on singing. Not to mention the D is hilarious and kicks ass in general so any excuse to throw them on is a good one. If that doesn't work I try and clean something, Ill clean my room or part of my house (if im home), or try to solve some kind of problem. I find that accomplishing something even as minute as making my bed can stimulate positive feelings that pull me out of an attack. My last resort is usually to call a friend or family member and start some casual conversation to distract me from spiraling into a panic attack.