Which things help you to survive on bad days?

[noname223]

The initial title of the thread was something like "Name some things make your pain or life more enudrable during hardships?"
I could have also called it coping skills but I don't want this post to be too formal.
It can be all sorts of things for example even just some words that comfort you.

Food can distract me from pain. Still I like it to be healthy.

Talking to friends or my therapist

My medication takes some edges of my pain

The notion of committing suicide can be alleviating. However I still try to remind that this only one possible option of how to continue in my life and that there are also alternative roads which I can take

Online Shopping can be good but should not become too extreme

Playing video games, phone games give me dopamine boosts but I remain f2p

Intellectual stimulation - I try to keep my mind busy to keep it free of worries. However I am still excessively ruminating. My sorrows overwhelm me pretty easily

Music - when I become depressed I often listen to sad music which resonates well with me happy music in such circumstances feels wrong

Going to a clinic: temporarily it was a very good way to improve my mood also due to the new social contacts

I say to me that the peak of the pain is only temporary. In general I have a quite low life quality however there are for sure some nuances in how I feel

Things that did not work for me: sports, mindfulness (counterproductive for me), meetings with too many strangers


What about you? Which things help you to survive on bad days?

 

[irregularreconcile]

These are great examples! Thank you for sharing what helps you.

Personally, I do a lottt of art. I paint, draw, write, upcycle textiles, etc etc... Of course, it depends on my spoons, and what I can do given that.

On a really hard day I just sleep a lot

Your list is great! Thank you for sharing.

 

[Gleysson]

I love your coping mechanisms!

For me it's usually centered around my cats.

I have an orange kinky psychopath that destroys the house then comes all cute asking for scratches, then he lays on his side and if I try scratching he bites me. He wants slaps. That little sub wants slaps. And he purrs very hard.

The other one is my life. We say she is our inclusion quota in the house. She's completely deaf and has some balance disability (we adopted her when she was 1 yo). We think she had a very hard upbringing. She even has some broken teeth and a tumor on her ear that was really infected. But it's been removed and it's all good. She's an absolute drama queen and has the most heart wrenching whimper when I give her her ear medication. But she cuddles and has the most beautiful piercing gaze. She loves deeply and it shows.

The third one is the boss. She owns the house. I'm just a servant in her world. She is very smart, collected, absolutely loves her brother (the psycho). She's not much of a trouble maker, she just stays at vantage points, sometimes scratches the designated chair (we have an old fake leather chair that they claw away). But she is cold, she is smart, she plans, she schemes. All for one absolute goal: eat plastic. We hide all the plastic in the house and that minx just finds it. There is always plastic in her poop. And we are just so afraid she chokes.
And some rare times she comes and asks for scratches on the head. But like 10 seconds in she just removes her head with a disgusted look

My other coping mechanisms

Gaming sometimes

Doom scrolling tiktok, Reddit, here, IG

Food of course

The absolute shit that's nicotine

I cook sometimes

My friends come over every week and we just talk shit and geek out

My GF is abroad now, so I don't have my main coping mechanism: boobies

And if I must say. When the day is very rough and I have a lot of tension, or if I just feel like it (NSFW)

That one really good wank. Refreshing