Dealing with Stress & Negative Feelings

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Discussion Overview

The discussion revolves around various strategies for managing stress and negative feelings. Participants share personal experiences and methods, covering a range of approaches from physical activities to creative outlets and lifestyle changes.

Discussion Character

  • Exploratory
  • Debate/contested
  • Conceptual clarification

Main Points Raised

  • Some participants suggest physical activities like running, playing drums, or engaging in sports as effective stress relievers.
  • Others propose creative outlets such as writing, playing music, or drawing to cope with negative feelings.
  • A few participants mention the use of medication and alcohol as part of their stress management strategies, though opinions on this vary.
  • Several contributions highlight the importance of lifestyle changes, including diet and exercise, to reduce stress over time.
  • Some participants emphasize the value of meditation and focusing on tasks to alleviate stress and clear the mind.
  • Video games are mentioned as both a source of enjoyment and potential frustration, with mixed experiences shared regarding their impact on mood.
  • Humor and light-hearted comments about relationships and personal habits are interspersed throughout the discussion.

Areas of Agreement / Disagreement

Participants express a variety of methods for dealing with stress, with no clear consensus on the most effective approach. Many different strategies are proposed, and some participants acknowledge that what works can depend on individual circumstances.

Contextual Notes

Some participants note that their experiences with stress relief are highly personal and may not apply universally. There are also references to the complexity of emotions and the situational nature of stress management techniques.

Who May Find This Useful

This discussion may be of interest to individuals seeking diverse perspectives on coping with stress and negative feelings, particularly those looking for informal advice or shared experiences in a community setting.

Lisa!
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So what do you do to get rid of stress and other negative feelings?
 
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Anger/stress/insomnia: play drums until my arms fall off

depressed: write, play guitar, listen to depressing music, watch a movie, draw

you didn't answer your own question!
 
Run

run

run

That or drugs.No! just running.
 
damnit, i m just going through those feelings, what should i do??
 
I used to go out and shoot things. Now, my medication takes care of it (along with ridiculously huge amounts of beer).
 
Well I listen to copious amounts of happy hardcore music on di.fm and I try to tackle some kind of a new certification or additional education here and there, but overall I think the stress is easy to reduce if you change your lifestyle - become physically active, eat well balanced meals, don't eat at night, don't drink alcohol in excess, have various friends and dates and take up a hobby that you really like, maybe buy a telescope and go out at night or get a fishing rod and go fishing sometime.

But like everyone said, if that doesn't work, drugs :biggrin: (and I'm not joking) - haven't needed that yet though, but I know it works for some.

oh and then there's also rafting, mounting climbing and any other near death experience to get your juices flowing (ever jumped with a parachute?), and most popular activity - sex
 
Do something and really concentrate on what you're doing. This cuts out your mind's forays into peripheral worries and gives them a rest. This is what most forms of Meditiation are essentially about.
 
Cliche as it sounds, eat well and get exercise. Eating a good variety of non-junk foods should help ensure you get all the nutrients your mind needs to run well. In the short term, exercise releases chemicals that help lift your mood throughout the day. In the long term it helps stimulate neuron growth, which is thought by some to be the same mechanism by which SSRIs are effective at helping to improve mood. Once you have this basis down then you can worry about more specific strategies like the kind zoobie and moe mentioned.
 
I can usually go in one of two directions with stress relief activities. One is to find something very active to do...build something, tear something down, wash the car, bake 6 dozen cookies, something like that. That works when the stress is something that's on the level of aggravation/frustration and I need to take that frustration out on something before I take it out on someone. At the other end of the spectrum, when I'm just overworked on a mental level and tired and just can't get myself to focus anymore because I'm overwhelmed with so many things on my mind, I need to do something calming and restful to get back on track. Then it's something like a hot bubblebath with scented candles, read a trash novel that requires no thought to follow the plot line (if it even has a plot line), cook myself a fancy meal, have a glass of wine, get to bed early, and generally just not do any work for a night to pamper myself so that I can start over fresh the next day.

Which one works best just depends on the type of stress.
 
  • #10
What Moonbear said reminded me of the game I used to enjoy, called Kudos ( http://www.positech.co.uk/kudos/index.html ) - I recommend you find a full version through bittorrent somewhere (yeah I endorse that). Basically its a life simulator, but its a pretty good way to see yourself in real life being entangled with the grand scheme of things. Its like that book 7 Habits of Highly Effective People where by changing the way you see things, and sort of changing the angle at which you see the world through the lens of perception you have a different attitude towards it. Well, at least that's in theory.
 
  • #11
Playing video games works really well for me, but then I get mad at the game.

I'm a perfectionist at games, so if the controls are slightly off, I get mad.
 
  • #12
JasonRox said:
Playing video games works really well for me, but then I get mad at the game.

I'm a perfectionist at games, so if the controls are slightly off, I get mad.

yea i have a stupid habit of breaking my keyboard when controls are off:biggrin::biggrin:
 
  • #13
cronxeh said:
and most popular activity - sex

Oh yeah, I forgot about that one. Unfortunately, so has my wife. :rolleyes:
 
  • #14
Thanks all of you!:smile:
moe darklight said:
depressed: , listen to depressing music,
It doesn't make you feel worse?:bugeye:

you didn't answer your own question!
Starting a thread at PF asking people what they do to get rid of negative feeling!:-p
Partly kidding, that depends on the situation and the cause! Anyway most of the time I get rid of negative feelings so quickly:smile:

Meditation, dancing, surfing the web, listening to my favorite songs, shooting the ball, breaking things down(Spanish psychologists recently discovered(?) that really works), nagging at beloved 1s (in a humorous way), transfering stress to someone else:devil:,...


ank_gl said:
damnit, i m just going through those feelings, what should i do??
Commiting a suicide?:-p
(I was joking! But you know when people think of death and suicide, they might value the life more:smile:)

cronxeh said:
oh and then there's also rafting, mounting climbing and any other near death experience to get your juices flowing (ever jumped with a parachute?), and most popular activity - sex
:smile:
Whenever a woman is feeling down, it's either because of lack of sex or PMS/T! Not to mention that women go nuts during period due to lack of sex!:rolleyes::-p

zoobyshoe said:
Do something and really concentrate on what you're doing. This cuts out your mind's forays into peripheral worries and gives them a rest. This is what most forms of Meditiation are essentially about.
Good advice!:smile: I take a deep breath, ensure myself that I can manage this 1(task, interview, exam,...) like the past and there's nothging to worry about and then I foxuc on what I'm doing!
 
  • #15
Lisa! said:
Commiting a suicide?:-p
(I was joking! But you know when people think of death and suicide, they might value the life more:smile:)

:-p:-phehe, now i value life more:biggrin::biggrin:
 
  • #16
JasonRox said:
Playing video games works really well for me, but then I get mad at the game.
I'm not judging here, it's only been my personal experience that I have never felt so wretched as I have after playing a video game for more than an hour or so.

This has only happened a couple of times, and I have purposely never owned a gaming set, ever. Again, not a judgment, it's just not the right thing for some people.
 
  • #17
Chi Meson said:
I'm not judging here, it's only been my personal experience that I have never felt so wretched as I have after playing a video game for more than an hour or so.

This has only happened a couple of times, and I have purposely never owned a gaming set, ever. Again, not a judgment, it's just not the right thing for some people.

I don't feel that bad. The idea is that you forget about everything going on and focus on the game.

I actually don't own any systems. It's a family system and it's a Playstation One. The old machine.

Great times too!
 

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