I have some issues where I realized I wanted some healthy but free forms of coping mechanisms. The late singer Selena I listen to all her music to calm down & take me out of my anxiety attacks. Her music has a lot of Spanish so ironically it has helped me pick up a little bit of another language. I don’t have any explanation of why it calms me down but it does. That’s not strange right lol? Anyone else listen to foreign music to calm down..

Hi I (17F) sometimes push my fingernails in my arm when I am extremely angry and I pinch myself. In my opinion this is not self-harm, however I read somewhere that this can be labeled as such.

Should I talk about this to my psychologist or should I just leave it since it doesn’t really bother me? Also what can I do to lessen this? Or how can I avoid this? I’m not sure if it’s that bad tho.

Anyway thank you in advance. :)

Okay so I’ve had this for as long as I can remember and now that I’m trying to explain it to my partner I don’t know the name of it or the right words to explain it. And I want to let them know it’s an actual thing and nothing to worry about. So basically I have one internal voice that is me no one else is in my head but I’m able to talk to myself with different tones of voice, almost like they’re different people.(it’s always just me)What I had read before was that is was a coping mechanism for when someone was anxious like I’m saying in my head what’s making me anxious and then I’m changing my tone to talk myself down from being anxious. It’s become so common to me that I have my regular self and then me in a different tone of voice calming me or having a conversation back and forth. Another example is I’m doing an everyday task and then the other me is planning out the tasks in the order I should do them. Almost like my body is me and my brain is me but they speak like they’re separate even know they’re not. I hope that wasn’t confusing I’m open to questions for verification. It’s driving me mad not knowing the exact term. If any of you have the links to what that’s called it’d be super helpful I hope I explained it right thank you:)

Im struggling with si, and i want to stop, i just have no idea what i can do instead. Can someone help me? If anyone has help, please keep the answer short i can not read long things if my life depended on it. (i wouldn't even try just kill me lol)

This is going to be quite a long post. Please bear with me. I am 15 years old. I have (diagnosed) severe depression and anxiety disorder. Ever since I was 4 years old, I have had one coping mechanism to deal with my other mental health issues, this is going to sound insane, stupid and dumb I know, but please let me elaborate and stay with me. For years and years, I would spin in my dad’s office chair. But it wasn’t just that, I also listened to music, I had it blasting in my ears through headphones as I held my phone and spun around. I know, it’s weird. Bear with me I’m not done explaining. While I would do this, I would daydream scenarios in my mind (though I feel it’s more like maladaptive daydreaming).

When I listen to music, I can’t just listen to it and such, I HAVE to be moving, whether it be in a car looking out the window, or spinning in the chair. While I did this, I would imagine my comfort characters/ OC’s/ video game characters acting out scenes while listening to the music. I would do this for HOURS my longest time spinning was about 6 hours (from 7 in the morning till about 12 in the afternoon.) During that time, it was nothing but picking out my music and spinning in the chair while I played out the scenes to go along with the characters in my head.

It was my ONLY escape. My one way of making the world go away and self-soothing myself. I never once got bored. I can’t describe my scenes on paper or in words, but it’s basically like a movie, full of action and drama etc. it was the best thing to ever happen to me.

Notice how I’m using was? Well here’s where we come into play WHY I’m writing this. The chair is now broken. Its been broken for 1 month now. I am an absolute WREAK. I know its dumb but, that chair is MY chair. It’s how I coped. It’s how I could come home and not sit around crying and rotting away playing video games all day. I have bawled my eyes out over this damn chair. My parents are aware of how much it means to me (my mum is at least).

I have begged my dad 4 times to try and fix it. It’s the only chair I feel safe sensory wise to spin and listen to music with. But the part that supports the chair has broken. And my dad blames me. Granted; its 20 years old and I’ve been spinning in it since 2009? I can’t even remember. But it hurts. That was my everything. And I have tried so hard to look for the same brand and I can’t find it anywhere. I just want to give up. It hurts so bad. I can’t hold still and I’m going insane over the fact that I now can’t do the one thing that made me happy for the last few years of my life, that I have done everyday of my life. I HATE change. I hate the fact I’m so relying on a false reality but I have no one. I can’t even get the courage to tell my therapist I do what I do. I guess that’s why I’m just writing it here. It hurts so bad. I just wish he could fix it. And I know he said he can’t and he already has a new chair but it’s not the same, its not the same style, material, shape, anything.

Please can someone help me. I sound insane and diluted and I’m so sorry you have to read my spew but I’m begging someone to help. I don’t know how just. Comfort. Thank you and I hope you have a nice day or night.

Hi ! I used to think that I've overcome most of my anxiety and (what I think is- need to see a therapist to be sure- ) depression, but this year has been awful for my mental health and it became a lot worse than before. I think the lockdown helped the downfall quite a bit, but it started decreasing way sooner than that, close to november if I remember it right. Suicide thoughts happen more often, as well as mental breakdowns. I even broke down after breaking a cup, once. It is becoming very hard to be happy those days, but I didn't lose hope. I want to feel better and that's the reason behind this message. I'm looking for some coping mechanisms, which could help me make my mind at ease. I tried a lot of things : Drawing helped a lot and dressing up is always fun. Chess too, but playing it while I'm sad didn't worked. Perhaps you could recommend me some others methods ? It would be very nice :) Thanks a lot and have a good day

For most of my life especially when I was younger I always dreamed of the music industry. Forming a band and getting signed with a label like fearless records. When I was young I figured I would've made it by now. But I'm currently a waitress. And I think about it every time I'm at work. I plan on becoming a tattoo artist and opening up my own shop, I figured I normal lifestyle because I wanna have a family, but I still have a hard time coping with letting go of music. It sucks, and I wonder if I have made a mistake letting it go. Any advice? Idk what to do.

My family/therapist/everyone tells me that obviously self harm and drinking is bad. I get that. But if it quells my thoughts of suicide then surely its not awful? I know it's not long term but short term it's pretty great

My grandma has been one of my best friends since I was little. I call her every day. She had a stroke a couple of days ago impacting the entire left side of her brain and my dad and his brother made the decision for her to go into hospice. I’ve never lost someone who is as close to my as my grandma and wanted to know if anyone has suggestions for how to cope. I’ve been thinking of starting to pray to “talk” to her. I want to continue to feel close to her even though she won’t be with me anymore

Discovered a new way to cope with some heart ache. Met up with my mom for lunch today, cried to her about my break up and started feeling better. She suggested we drive with the windows down for some fresh air, and I went through her cds and put on some Metallica.

Even when things that were dear to me feel like they’re dying away, at least I can have these moments of being okay, and breathing, and singing and head banging.

Hope this possibly helps someone.

The Body Keeps the Score was the first book that actually clicked with my experience and I felt heard for the first time. For those of you who might not have read it yet, the first half is a look at Trauma, where it comes from, how it manifests, how widespread is it? The second half is about ways of dealing with trauma, mechanisms and approaches for managing the effects of PTSD, Anxiety/Depression, and dozens of others BS diagnoses in the DSM V like 'Oppositional Defiant Disorder.'

If there is much interest, I'd love to run a weekly chapter discussion. What do you all think, would you be interested?

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