As I’m sitting here watching the Buffalo Bills game and smelling some yummy chocolate chip cookies I just made, I decided it would be a good time to write about coping skills. Coping skills are tools and techniques that a person can use to help manage situations such as stress, anxiety, depression, and emotional dysregulation. I am going to share with you some coping skills that I have been practicing to help me through recovery. 

1- Baking: I love to bake! I find that baking helps me to relax and distracts me. When I first went into residential, instead of going on an outing with the group once a week, I would stay back at the house and bake. It was my time to do something I enjoy doing during a stressful time and typically none of the other patients were around. It was also something I did on the weekends. I like to be creative and have fun with my baking. It doesn’t always turn out well, but at least I have a good time doing it. Since being at the clinic for PHP and IOP, I have been baking at my apartment at least once a week and then take it in to share. 

2- Art: Art therapy has been one of my favorite groups most weeks. I love to be creative and when I can’t express how I’m feeling with words, I can typically find a way to do it with art. The most relaxing art that I have found to do is fluid painting. There is no right or wrong way to do it and it doesn’t take much thought. When I have had an exhausting day and need something mindless to do, I chose to do fluid painting. Right now I have a line of canvases on my living room floor. 

3- Music: I haven’t been doing much playing or singing, but I definitely listen to music. I can listen to music while doing just about anything and the type of music depends on what kind of mood I’m in. Most recently I’ve been listening to coffee shop stations on Amazon Music. 

4- Movies/TV Shows: I don’t have a TV, but I have some streaming services that I use on my computer. There are days when I feel like I did to be on the go and I don’t allow myself to just rest. On days like that, I will find a TV show or movie and just sit in my rocking chair or lay in my bed while watching it. I used to not be able to give myself permission to just rest, but with practice, I’m able to rest a lot easier. 

5- Walk: I love being outside. Something I have learned and practiced a lot this year is mindful movement. One aspect of my eating disorder was compulsive exercise. After a few weeks in residential, I was given permission to go on short walks. Typically I went out with one of the other patients and we had some really good conversation or just enjoyed listening to the sounds around us. I find that using my senses while taking a walk helps me to stay in the present and be mindful instead of focusing on calories burned or my body. Moving my body in ways that feel good such as during a walk is so much better than compulsively moving it even through pain. Some day I may be able to get back into doing some more exercise, but for now I will continue to enjoy my walks. 

6- Journaling: This is something that I definitely don’t do enough of. Journaling is a great way to get all my thoughts out and then be able to more easily process them. I will occasionally share my journaling with my therapist so she can help me process and work through different situations. When I have some tough emotions, I find that writing down those emotions to be helpful. One technique I learned in residential is using the senses to write out the emotion. First, you give it a name and then you write down what it looks like, sounds like, feels like, tastes like, and smells like. This helps me to separate the emotion from myself and then I can also do the same thing with what emotion I would like to have. 

There are more coping skills that I use at times, but these are the main ones. One big thing I have had to practice is to use the coping skills in the first place but also that coping skills are not supposed to be used to avoid situations. Instead, they can help distract but it’s important to go back and confront the situation to process and work through it. 

What are some coping skills that you use?