Oh thank god other people do this, I honestly thought it was just me. Always makes me feel weird to just delete it… but usually they get prrrrrety personal.
@AcerPlatanoides, I was going to say “walk a dog, cuddle a dog, cry into a dog, or in general just be around a dog (steal a friends if you have to, just don’t forgot to give it back)” but I see you already have that covered. Lean on that dog as much as you can!
Dog is my copilot
Going outside is the big one for me. One I’m hanging out amidst birds and streams and trees and cool bugs and things, my perspective on everything else changes a lot. I spotted a foraging flock of chickadees and titmice yesterday, when a ruby-crowned kinglet showed up with them and started doing his little red crown display yesterday (so cool!) and I spotted a yellow-bellied sapsucker in a neighbor’s tree (they’re very uncommon here) and was warm and happy for an hour and dumb work things are still less frustrating today. Time with pets always help too.
A couple of months ago I was working a shitty job for a complete arsehole (Mercedes driver - coincidence?) and I was hating every minute; I wanted to score a gig as a bike mechanic and we were coming out of the off-season, so I’d fired off a couple of job applications, when douchebag boss has another go at me for something that was his fault, and said if I don’t like it there’s the door…
I was up to here with the fucken prick and his bullying, so I walked. That was on a Monday arvo; that Friday I was spinning spanners in one of Melbourne’s oldest and most well-known bike shops 
Arsehole boss ripped me off for a week’s pay, so I have to chase that up somehow, but whatever. My wage also took a 25% hit, but fuck it - working a job I’d be happy to do for room and board is worth a hell of a lot.
This is a terrific topic, and I’m glad it was started and people have great ideas. I need examples and methods of building and keeping psychological, emotional and physical resilience. I am immensely grateful. Life requires oodles of bravery at times, and a willingness to pass through challenging episodes of uncertainty
Withdraw. Paint. Paint some more. Surround myself with good things and use anything as a distraction. Drink as much as I need just to dial back the noise but not so much that I spiral. And paint some more.
This might not be entirely healthy, but it’s working. Despite the best efforts of my brain, I’m still alive. Screw you, brain! 
It’s such a relief to hear someone else say this. As much as I want to be positive there are times when it’s just too hard to be around others.
Although weirdly I sometimes find that doing a community volunteer project with complete strangers helps. I keep the pain to myself so I don’t have to respond to expressions of sympathy. It’s a way of being outside oneself for a while that seems to work.
This intrigues me. What sort of projects might you do?
Eating nutrient-dense, whole, natural foods. I’m enjoying some homemade beef broth right now, as I’m hyper from caffeine and pseudoephedrine, and having all those amino acids should be replenishing. There’s a reason chicken soup is called Jewish penicillin!
Telling myself “This too shall pass.” Even when it’s waking up in the middle of the night with my stomach ice cold, building the habit to recognize my feelings as what they are, feelings, and not always the non-negotiable,absolute reality. Reaching for a better thought.
[ETA]: B-100 complex vitamins and stretches. Too prone to stagnation and intrusive thoughts. Also, would you believe I am trying affirmations?
Um, I guess I don’t. Although I hadn’t thought about it until now. “Not taking care of myself” apparently is my method. I should probably do something about that.
I volunteer at a local state park. I should add that the mundane physical jobs that usually involves–moving logs, carrying wheelbarrows full of mulch and gravel–combined with being out in the woods is probably also part of what makes it therapeutic.
It’s not just you. I delete about as many as I post. A lot of unposted replies hang out the bottom of the page until that tab gets closed days later.
I do too, and that’s progress from my ratio of 3 unposted to 1 posted comment from a month ago.
I seem to have started by posting this question. i have yet to really start cleaning. I really should start that. I think the hit over the head phase is coming to a close though, and I hope I am doing many of the right things.
I am still really disappointed, but not so much in myself. I gave myself permission to be proud for having done my best, which does not mean I did perfectly, or no things that probably made it worse, nor even succeeded at my nominal goals overall, it means that even as i failed, I did all of that better than I ever have before.
It wasn’t the best relationship ever, but I was my best imperfect self in it, and that counts for something. Mainly as a minimum bar for myself, for the next one, but also as a point of pride. I failed authentically, and thats a thing.
Oh, I’m hitting at least five written to one posted since the election. Probably more like six or seven.
You are damn straight that’s a thing, and being proud of doing your best and of resolving to do even better is appropriate.
Dude that’s basically all I do these days.
I count only the incidences I’m on the site, read a comment, click on “quote reply” and open the text-input box. I don’t count the times I fantasize making a sockpuppet or stunt account to lambaste or mock someone who appears to be driving trollies, before exhaling and finding some more constructive outlet for my reactive feelings. I’m not being sanctimonious, I’m admitting I have these feelings but the thirty-second endorphin hit of getting my reflexive ya-yas out isn’t worth risking the goodwill I’ve tried to earn here. I don’t want to find out the hard way who’s sarcasm-impaired.
My tools for emotional resilience:
Tea. Specifically, making tea. The tea part is irrelevant, though. It’s an everyday task that captures my focus even when emotionally rattled. Usually. It’s a short respite but if you can find some everyday task that does this for you, then it serves as daily affirmation that you haven’t totally lost your head.
A role where my responsibilities revolve around dealing with non-disgruntled people. Work or volunteer, it doesn’t matter. Even just a few hours a week is better than nothing. Anything to get my mind focusing outward, not inward. This last point has been a recurring theme in this thread. That’s not a coincidence.
Swimming and lifting weights. Whatever gets my blood pumping and reinforces my internal belief that I care about myself even if I feel no such thing. This is an example of what I call ‘working outward-in’. Action precedes cognition. This approach works because we’re always trying to make sense of our actions so if you start swimming (or whatever) you unconsciously begin to form a belief that you must, on some level, care about your health or enjoy this activity otherwise you wouldn’t be doing it.
Listening to music, singing along to music, and crying. Whatever combination works for you.
Lamotrigine and mirtazapine. Because sometimes the above just aren’t sufficient for me and I’ve visited the abyss enough, thanks.
I only count the times I type a polemical screed and hit “cancel” before posting. 
To quote from a book series by Spider Robinson (Callahan’s Crosstime Saloon)
“Shared pain is lessened; shared joy, increased—thus do we refute entropy.”
