CBT Post: Communication with Alternate Coping Skills

Referring back to the post about consequences of maladaptive communication strategies may be helpful for this exercise.

Some things I will try next time I have difficulty communicating with someone are:

Next up, we have my favorite skill: challenging distorted thoughts! If you have not been keeping up with your daily practice, now might be a good time to do a few days worth. Trying to work your way to the underlying belief behind why you felt a certain way will be very helpful in the next exercise.

[Adapted from The CBT Toolbox by Jeff Riggenbach]

OMG is it a non-therapy post?!

It IS!

My blue painting is coming along nicely, I finished a shirt with bats on it and an ABOLISH ICE shirt for a friend. (Does anyone have recs for image hosting? I want to show this stuff off.) The simple projects that I set myself to do during my depression are going well. As is the depression itself! My brain is slowly surfing it's way back to solid emotional ground. Huzzah!

Words and things and stuff ... uh. My brain is extra tasty crispy today because I used kratom yesterday, which is my emergency, "must be awake and not in pain for 6-7 hours" herbal medication. I don't know how I fucked up my shoulder yesterday, but I think I may have subluxed my collarbone in my sleep? That was where the pain and mild swelling were. Boo, body. Boo. Anyway, the kratom is habit-forming, especially for people who like being all the way awake and not in pain, which, uh. Hello. So I try to only take it for emergencies, bc the hangover the next day is tiresome and fuzzy-headed.

I am not sure what projects I am going to be doing after this, but I am thinking of picking back up the ten-stitch blanket. It has not been worked on since Mom got sick last Thanksgiving. I am glad I have mostly gotten over the nonsensical guilt of putting down one project and taking on another as my interest shifts. I will come back to stuff eventually, I just need to follow my whims and they will come full circle.

May your own interests come full circle, as well.