Right now, I find myself in a deep, dark depression, so it’s a great time to talk about coping skills!
When I’m depressed, I usually bury myself in video games, books, tv shows, or movies until I finally get some energy to strive for something productive. Work and school become almost too much, and I have to fight, daily, to continue with my routine and keep pushing forward.
One of the coping skills I’ve learned to deal with it is to make myself take intermittent breaks in my reading, games, or tv time, and spend that time doing something productive. If I’m too far gone for that, I make myself do something productive before rewarding myself with the favored activity of the day.
Because “zoning out” when I’m depressed, while a good distraction from my negative thoughts and lack of productivity (books and movies and video games even give you a sense of accomplishment to off-set that lack of productivity), isn’t very conducive to my overall goals. Zoning out is a coping skill I learned for my depression early on, but it’s caused me a lot of trouble in achieving my dreams. Books don’t get written if you spend months at a time doing whatever it is that will distract you from your depressed mind the most.
However, it IS better than ruminating on my negative thoughts. Days where I let my brain beat me up instead of immersing myself in some distracting activity, are the days I contemplate suicide or cutting the most. Thus, zoning out, for all of it’s negative problems, IS a coping skill. But it isn’t the healthiest coping skill.
How do you cope with your mental illness? Is there something you find helps the most whenever you’re having a specific problem? Honestly, I could use the inspiration right now, as I’m having a bad month!
Photo by Jeremy Bishop on Unsplash
T. E. Albertson 