Need new coping skills

[lilgost]

All the coping skills I have is not helping right now, the urges are getting more intense and I am afraid I am going to slip. What types of positive coping strategies do you use?

[early]

My coping skills toolbox is basically empty, so I'll share with you the only one I've got (and it's not the best, as far as coping skills go, but it's higher up the ladder than SI): take a (non-habit-forming over the counter) sleeping pill and go to bed and hope that this will pass overnight. That's saved my butt a couple of times, so maybe it'll help someone else.

[lilgost]

Thank you for your input. I used to wear a rubber band around my wrist, and snap it when I had the urges, but that doesn't seem to be helping anymore. One of my therapists once told me to draw on myself with red ink, that only made things worse. I want to try to get myself up and start exercising, I have heard that helps as well, I just need some motivation to get up out of bed first.

[Just Pomegranates]

Exercise is definitely a good one to try

I'm also a big fan of distraction (reading, writing, journaling, movies, going for a walk with my dogs, going out shopping) until you forget about the urge or the worst of it has passed. I'd also recommend checking out Scarily VAST list of coping strategies thread as well. There's heaps of ideas in there that you could try and see if any work for you. Maybe making a coping box filled with things to help you coping with urges could be helpful too?

[early]

Just Pomegranates, your suggestion of putting coping-related stuff in a box reminded me of a file I've had floating around in Evernote for a while now on how to make a coping skill toolbox, but I haven't gotten around to actually making one (it feels stupid to me, which I know I need to get over). There's a link to it on Tumblr at the bottom of this post.

Let's Make A Coping Skills Toolbox