Therapy through....

I'm saying this is things that while going through a tough time or you're angry, that you do that is almost like therapy...

For me, its cleaning... I've been going 4 hours strong right now and I've got half the house cleaned and organized and if you read my blog.... ( http://www.thetfp.com/blog/streak_56.146/#axzz1X5wU1vSB ) you'll understand why. I don't know why I love doing it when I'm angry but it just centres me and I can just keep going from here....
--- merged: Sep 5, 2011 9:45 PM ---
and it lasts longer than masturbating...

 

Crown and Coke!

Once I'm done with the drinking, then I prefer to progress onto DIY projects, particular if its wood or metal working. My most productive nights building the home theater and the race car were when I was in a seriously shitty mood.

Yard work is also up there on my list, probably because the physical exhaustion ends up taking the edge off.

 

Streak - just saw your profile update. This is exciting ... sounds like you are more than organizing it .... I mean ... you're organizing it away from some associations in the past, and toward the direction of your own future. Good on you

(edit: changed out 'chosen' for 'own')

 

Playing the piano. I've been known to sit myself there for 4-5 hours with no break. Its a place to let my hands be busy and my brain usually has to pay more attention to what I'm doing.

 

I like to go outside and be alone for a while. Hiking, birdwatching or riding my bike usually works best, for hours at a time if I have them.

If I can't go outside, I organize stuff, even if it doesn't need organizing.

 

The martial arts, particularly semi-contact sparring (nobody is supposed to get hurt too bad, fighter dependent), has always really helped me get away from whatever emo worries I've got. Your mind quickly prioritizes: "Dude, enough of the She-Left-Me boohoo bullshit! Somebody is punching at our face! Move!" I'm a super lousy fighter and the combination of physical exertion, fight stress and the heavy dose of shame associated with being beaten down by a goofy whirling 20 year old college kid is always a great way to be somewhere else. All middle class white males should try it sometime.

 

I try to get rid of as much as I possibly can. Not having a lot of possessions and then organizing the hell out of the rest-- inflicting my control on the "world"-- infinitely soothing. I always do a giant purge after a break-up.

 

Recently, I've found TF2 to be an amazing source of therapy. This being the internet, and me being a huge geek, raid leading and running my WoW guild has become increasingly stressful. The cracks are really starting to show in WoW as a game and as a community, and it's getting harder to keep motivation and cohesion high. So after a long night of tearing my hair out herding 24 cats through Firelands, there's nothing more fun than jumping in my favorite Dustbowl or 2fort servers in TF2 and just setting people on fire.

It sounds strange, but it really works!

 

Any activity that requires me to focus on it is therapy for me. It could be yard work (we're building a stone wall/path thing with lots of weird angles and height differences), playing with the kids or playing floorball with my co-workers. My mind idle fast (bad thing), so the activity needs to be captivating, fun or both.

I tend to be pretty detail focused, so cleaning and especially organizing also works great for me.

 

Reading science fiction or fantasy. If I'm in a different world, I can put mine aside for a bit and not think about it.

 

I found field stripping in cleaning my guns works for me. Some people may find that to be kind of on the crazy side, but for some reason, breaking them down and making them pretty again just helps me relax and put my ,ind in order.

 

Riding my bike, running, cleaning, downsizing (throwing things out or selling them), sex, reading a good book, or exploring somewhere on my own.

 

I go with photography - It always soothes me.