After perusing through a few journals and reading posts on the P&E board, I thought maybe I would start a thread on things we do to cope with the tougher emotions we go through while we heal. Things like....the frustration of not feeling better when we desperately want to, being so angry at our abusers all the time, feeling hopeless that we'll ever get better, or those lovely moments when we find out that our exes are having the time of their lives while we're laying on the floor in a puddle all torn apart. Truth be told, those moments suck big time! We read all the books on grieving and do all the things people say and still we wonder if it will ever end. Those are the moments when the most random of coping skills tend to surface in us and we end up doing something that seems totally off the wall, but ends up working for us.

For example:

I have covered my face with a pillow and thrown a complete kicking, screaming tantrum on my bed when I have been so frustrated that I wanted to explode. For some reason, it worked at the time.

I have taken dishes (ones I didn't care about), placed them in garbage bags, and hammered the crap out of them when I was in a rage about what had happened to me as a child.

I have taken old pictures of my abuser and scream and raged at it for hours, just to say all the things I couldn't.

I have cut up and torn clothing that my abuser gave me or clothing they left behind and broken items we had purchased together.

I have turned on my iTunes or played Karaoke Revolutions on my Playstation2, singing empowering songs like I was singing to them, proving I was free and better than they are.


So what sort of things have you done that actually made you feel better in the end??