For Christmas I received quite a few really cool items that I think will be brilliant and very handy for use as ‘coping tools’. I often use the term coping strategies when referring to items or activities which allow me to escape from the chaos of my mental illness (and just daily life). Of course these coping strategies don’t heal me, or instantly banish pain, depression and all that jazz from my life, but they certainly make things a little easier. I find for me that creative coping strategies really go down a storm when I’m in need of an activity that distracts my mind from the stresses and intensity of my monster. (My monster = PTSD, depression, anxiety and just other stuff). Coping strategies are a fantastic tool for self-care.
One of my Christmas gifts this year was the above pictured 1000 DOT-TO-DOT book. It’s intense and it’s BIG, there’s only twenty different individual dot-to-dot tasks, but each task includes 1000 dots… it’s pretty mind-boggling. I imagine it’s either going to be really soothing or really frustrating. I’ve not yet tried it as I’ve been fairly busy (sleepy) these past few days, but when I actually manage to complete one I’ll upload a picture!
I love colouring and other creative stuff, things like that really boost my mood, so I’ll let ya know how dot-to-dot goes. It’ll either be a brilliant coping strategy, or one that sets my teeth on edge…
Wish me luck!
Dearest Someone 
Love this post and love the idea of that book 🙂 ! x
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I’ll upload some before and after pictures when I finally do one, it looks so complicated haha! X
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Do, i look forward to seeing the results. I received some intricate postcard sized designs to colour from a friend, one of a number of gifts from her designed for self caring/coping strategies as you describe here. Plan to blog about it. x
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Oooh they sound lovely! I really think seeing something cool come together that you’ve done yourself (whether it’s art, drawings or whatever) is a really good way of reminding yourself that we can still do/make good things! (As cheesy as that sounds!)
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I completely agree x
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I have one of these books and I love it for distracting me when I feel low-
I can’t always concentrate to complete them in one go and I definitely can’t go near it when I am in a more hypo manic/manic episode as I become compulsive with it and it is more unhelpful than not.
I love doing them though- I have famous portraits but need to invest in some of the others too!
Hope you have managed to try it out and it has been helpful. X
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I’ve found that at times I really can’t go near it too as I feel an urge to get them all done (which hurts my head a lot!) But, I do find them really fun when I need to pass some time and I want to avoid unhealthy behaviour!
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They are definitely a fab distraction from unhealthy coping strategies as you have to get so absorbed in them that your mind is totally absorbed. x
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