Hi all. One of my biggest issues is emotional dysregulation.

I have noticed that a big thing is that I don’t have any activities that I can do for a prolonged period of time when frustrated. These “calming techniques” like breathing and the 5-4-3-2-1 thing only work for for a minute or so and then I’m back to flipping out. I need it to be both physical AND mental though. Only tackling physical leaves too much time for rumination…and only tackling mental doesn’t get out the high energy.

So I think I need something to bridge the gap here between the techniques to immediately and temporarily calm you and when I eventually feel better again.

Here are ideas I DON’T want:

  • Exercise - I find that exercise has never been mentally engaging enough to make me feel better. It actually will often do the opposite of what people say it does. It gives me more time to think and ruminate. Exercise for me will magnify my current emotions, which is beneficial if I am already happy, but absolutely terrible for me if I am already frustrated. Plus if I’m frustrated at like 3am, going outside to exercise is dangerous for me lol.

  • Writing down your feelings - Again, I feel like I’m missing something here. Doing that doesn’t make me feel better…it makes me ruminate and focus on the problem more, making me even more upset. And then I’m more inclined to send the thing I wrote to others which can damage relationships or be self destructive.

Positive ideas

  • Canvas painting - I absolutely have NO idea how to do anything artistic…but my thought is that you can angrily let your feelings out and splatter things onto a canvas…and then as you get more calm to morph it into something productive??? Dunno. But I have a screened in patio so I feel like I have the space to both be messy back there and to be able to do it in the middle of the night. I’m wondering if it would be too complicated with all the supplies needed or something though.

  • Video games - Actually seem to work to take my mind off of things, BUT there is no physical aspect to them. When I am physically calmer, they help me to not ruminate…but again I feel like I have a gap period between where I need more physical activity.

Thanks all I know it’s long lol.

  • 🇰 🌀 🇱 🇦 🇳 🇦 🇰 🇮 @pawb.socialEnglish
    2·
    22 hours ago

    Violent video games. And not just mindless dumb ones. Shit like R6 Siege or Counter-Strike. Simple, and yet mentally taxing because you are against other real people that you can’t just mindlessly exploit like an AI. The downtime when you’re looking for a match or dead in the round gives you enough time to do some pushups or something.

    If you have VR: Beat Saber. Physically taxing as well as mentally trying to keep up with the speed and rhythm of the blocks you need to cut in the right direction as they come down the hall. Sometimes it’s not my body being out of shape that keeps ke from getting a good score on a high BPM song, but the inability to focus on everything as it’s coming at me. 🤣