Coping Over Time

     Before I knew what Pure O was, and even for a little while after I received a diagnoses of OCD and Panic Disorder, every time I had intrusive thoughts (which was constantly), I wanted to flee the "tainted" environment where the thoughts happened. If I was at home, I tried to cope by leaving my house to go anywhere that wasn't my tainted home environment. If my intrusive thoughts happened out in public, that environment was also tainted, and I avoided that place like my life depended on it. I used the public places and people as a distraction. If I was out and about, whatever was happening there had my attention so that I had a few moments of peace from the OCD and the panic. Then that stopped working, and going out while I was suffering through particularly high anxiety made the anxiety worse.
     These days, I find that if my anxiety spikes or my intrusive thoughts are particularly hard to deal with, my preferred coping method is to take a few minutes by myself. I'll do some deep breathing or meditation alone to cope instead of using people and public places as a distraction. If it's particularly rough, I'll even try some yoga for anxiety. (My favorites are Child's Pose and the legs-up-the-wall pose.) I also find that feeling useful helps my anxiety, so I might clean or cook or play with my cats, Lola and Clementine.
     Over the years, how I cope with my mental health condition has changed. Things that worked in the beginning stopped working. Some things work only once in a particular situation. Some coping methods work sometimes, but not all the time. Then some coping methods work pretty consistently.
     Changing up my coping methods isn't a negative thing. Sure, I get frustrated when something that worked last week doesn't work this time, but the fact that it doesn't work isn't a bad thing. It doesn't mean that my funky brain is onto all my tricks. It simply means that my needs have changed. A person's needs change all the time, so of course, my coping strategies have to change to help me meet my needs in any given situation.
     I'll end with this: Coping with a mental health condition in a healthy way isn't always easy. Just because a coping strategy worked yesterday doesn't mean it'll work today, and that's okay. You just pull something else out of your bag of tricks. Just because something didn't work last week doesn't mean it won't work this week. It's okay to try the same things again in a different situation. Just don't give up because you haven't figured out what works to help you feel better.