Creative Venting

[ZombieBrains]

Venting all my negative thoughts has always helped me deal with my depression, sometimes on my lowest days writing helped me a lot. I like to think a note pad on my computer or on my desk can be used as something like an external hard drive for my brain where I can store all the anger and sadness and just lock it away.

Depression is hard to talk about sometimes so I find it helpful to tell it to a piece of paper when I don't feel like talking.

Also to make it a little more fun I try to express it through poetry and vent in rhyme, it may sound silly but for me it focuses my brain as I have to think about how to rhyme the words together, so not only do I vent out the feelings but I keep my head occupied by creative thinking.

This is one of my own personal tricks and if it can help just 1 person then that would be great.

Does anyone else have any tips or tricks for focusing their mind away from negative thinking?

[Jman232]

That doesn't sound silly at all, sounds like a creative way to put your thoughts to paper. :) I have a nice leather bound journal my mother in law gave me as a Christmas gift a few years back, and for a while I would wake up and fill in three pages with whatever was on my mind. I always found it a nice way to unload whatever was on my mind and help sort it out, and really, I ought to get back into that habit.

I'm glad writing helps :)

[funkytown]

I write poetry and fiction as ways to deal with my feelings! I use free verse a lot, or structured poetry styles that don't rhyme.

I also like journaling and art. Abstract art seems to really help me get all those pent up feelings out without having to worry about what it's going to look like at the end.

[bellbottoms]

I don't know if it "helps"... It doesn't fix anything. I'm not very interested in poetry and I don't enjoy writing things that are self-centered. When I write my stories or songs I find that metaphors for my thoughts and situation pop up on their own without it directly being the story of my life, so I find that to be a very good thing, then I don't feel so self-obsessed and trapped in my own unhappiness. Help or not it makes me feel good for a little while, so I suppose it helps in the moment.

I draw to sometimes but it's not abstract or expressive or "artsy" in any way, but it's another distraction.

[neurotic_lady89]

Venting all my negative thoughts has always helped me deal with my depression, sometimes on my lowest days writing helped me a lot. I like to think a note pad on my computer or on my desk can be used as something like an external hard drive for my brain where I can store all the anger and sadness and just lock it away.

Depression is hard to talk about sometimes so I find it helpful to tell it to a piece of paper when I don't feel like talking.

Also to make it a little more fun I try to express it through poetry and vent in rhyme, it may sound silly but for me it focuses my brain as I have to think about how to rhyme the words together, so not only do I vent out the feelings but I keep my head occupied by creative thinking.

This is one of my own personal tricks and if it can help just 1 person then that would be great.

Does anyone else have any tips or tricks for focusing their mind away from negative thinking?

That sounds very therapeutic. I love writing too, mostly fiction, but sometimes opinion pieces too. The problem is that depression takes my creativity away. I have a hard time giving my characters life, if I feel lifeless. Sometimes, I used to write my depressed thoughts down in a journal. Now I tend to post them here or in the "blog" section. Getting the thoughts out is better than keeping them in. I read a CBT inspired idea of writing down a list of negative thoughts, and then challenging every one of them in written response. I might try that later on.

Love your profile pic/username by the way!