Hi everyone,
I’m reaching out to ask for advice and insights on how you manage emotional dysregulation. Lately, I’ve been finding it challenging to handle intense emotions, especially when they seem to come out of nowhere or are triggered by small things.
I know this is something that many people in the AuDHD community experience, so I’d love to hear about any strategies, tools, or practices that have worked for you. Whether it’s specific techniques, coping mechanisms, or lifestyle changes, I’m open to anything that might help.
Thank you in advance for your support and for sharing your experiences. I really appreciate hearing from others who understand what this is like.
Looking forward to hearing from you!
Unhealthy coping mechanism: take a break, put in headphones, put on the most overstimulating sad/manic/violent vocaloid music, proceed to engage in megalomaniacal fantasies of battle, world domination, and self destruction until you get bored.
Healthier coping method: try to do mindfulness meditations. Doing them even when you’re feeling more normal will make it easier to try when you are. Just trying to take a few deep breaths or focus on breathing could help and at the very least won’t hurt.
Another thing is just venting to someone or writing in like a journal. If something is getting to me or I’m feeling an emotion for no reason and it’s frustrating, venting about it in my journal seems to help me calm down and manage it better.
Thanks. I’ve been using all of those unhealthy coping mechanisms and probably more. Mindfulness is something I see mentioned repeatedly, and I want to give it a try.
How do you use the journal? Is it just for venting, or does that just happen sometimes?
Edit: I tried both of these things and they both have an immediate impact. Thanks again, I see how to use the journal now.
You can write whatever you want. A single word/feeling, a rant, an insight that came to you while staring at the wall. You can write about your day, what you want to do, how loud the neighbors’ lawn equipment is. The important part is that it’s taking thoughts from your brain and putting them down on paper.
Journaling is just like any other technique - it works best if you make it a habit. Same with meditation, breathing, mindfulness, etc. Do it when you’re feeling okay. Any time you think of it. You can use a physical reminder if (like me) you have trouble remembering to Do Thing(s). Like take a can or a box and put it upside down in a conspicuous spot. When you see it, jot something down/type it out, then move the object to where you’ll see it later. But the goal is to do it enough so that when you are feeling overwhelmed, it’s something that you can do with minimal cognitive load. You need to create that pathway first before your neurons will go there on their own.
Practice makes
perfectbetter.Thanks, I’ve been using it basically all day, and I already feel better. Even my handwriting looks better. I didn’t really have an outlet for this before.