Published on 12, July, 2020
Hi! I was wondering what you guys use to distract yourselves from anxiety and the pressures in your life? I’ve been off work for a while. I have anxiety disorder and I’ve not done any work for about 5 months now so I really need to get back to it but my anxiety is still railing me and my distraction and coping methods aren’t working like they used to.
Gaming was always one of my best distractions but it’s losing its appeal sadly. I love games, being able to dive into fantasy brought me a lot of happiness but it’s not as fun now and the online games are toxic. People are so rude. I was playing a game on Friday and someone lost and messaged me saying they hope I die of cancer. So yeah not playing that one again. I still have my singing and playing and making music but I’m not feeing the zest for it atm.
Sometimes I take videos like Spongebob, remove the sound and redo the voices as my own, that’s still fun but I’ve not done it recently.
And all the while my anxiety is increasing. I don’t know why I’m so anxious, everything seems to be a trigger.
Hopefully I can find a new distraction soon.
Hi - I have a warning for you, based on my life experience (I'm double your age.)
And all the while my anxiety is increasing. I don’t know why I’m so anxious
I found it possible to evolve from one distraction to another for 40+ years. The transitions periods from one to another were always a bit hit-and-miss, but necessity is the mother of invention, so I always managed despite the hardship involved.
In addition to the "special interests/distractions" that cycled through the first half of my life, I also had alcohol to "help" sooth and numb when required.
Eventually, I ran out of distractions and energy and was forced to address WHY I needed to be distracted from life and to confront the core underlying issue. That was an extremely hard process, but I did manage (just) to get it done.
If I had my time over again, I would not have wasted so much energy, time and resources trying to "cope" and "distract" myself from life when I was young. All that did for me, was to delay the moment when I had to confront the underlying realities of WHY I needed such things and HOW I could change my life so that I didn't need them.
For what it's worth, my advice to you now is to do the hard work on yourself now whilst you are still young. I got through my delayed process, but it was undoubtedly more destructive and dangerous than it would have been at your age - and I spent a lot of my life needlessly stressed.
Good luck with your processing.
Hi thanks. That's what I'm going to try and do, take it slow but work on things just try not to burn myself out in the process.