Advice on how to distract myself?

Does anyone have any tips or advice on how i can keep busy or distracted? If im not doing some thing to distract my mind, i find myself going crazy with over thinking about possible health issues and freaking myself out. Then setting myself in panic and anxiety attacks

[Nothing_but_books]

Do you like animals? Search videos.

Music? Find something upbeat you like and move around a bit.

Take yourself outside and look around.

[Hidden in reply to Nothing_but_books]

I absolutely love animals! I've always been great with animals. I also like listening to music. I noticed coloring helps keep me calm. It's been a go to for me because it helps relax me. And somehow watching cleaning videos is relaxing too me also

[Nothing_but_books in reply to Hidden]

I guess we're all different, 'cause your "cleaning videos" is not my idea of fun. I laughed myself silly. Cleaning is my nemesis.

[Hidden in reply to Nothing_but_books]

LOL I don't care to much for it either. It's just calming too watch for me I guess. But I do randomly get into moods where I just need to organize and clean

[southernbelle87 in reply to Hidden]

I haven’t colored in years. Thanks for sharing this. It may help me as well! 🖤

[Hidden in reply to southernbelle87]

Relaxing and calming isn't it

[Nothing_but_books]

youtube.com/watch?v=WjqiU5F...(Not working as expected?)

[Hidden in reply to Nothing_but_books]

oh my goodness I absolutely loved this film! Put a smile on my face every time I watch it

[NeuroSeeker]

First thing each day is wading through the sludge of dealing with doctors, etc. That is currently taking hours a day. It makes me cry every morning. I get so stressed I can't eat. I get that done so I can turn off my phone and know that I won't get blasted by another problem. If they're real they'll leave a message. I've been sick long enough that my friends don't really reach out to me anymore.

Here's what I do:

Cannabis. Seriously, I'd have killed myself by now without marijuana. The medical industry is completely inadequate and cares very little for individuals, so if it's legal where you live I suggest trying it. Indicas are less likely to induce anxiety if you're prone to that. I smoke a lot of weed, and ALL my doctors know, and NONE of them have said I shouldn't. More research is coming out that finds it is helpful rather than harmful, though research on pot is stupidly behind because of politics (at least in the US - it was banned because non-white people used it. It was used to get black musicians, especially (as I understand). So much for Marijuana Madness. When I was a kid, we were told pot would lead to heroin use and death. Lies are why nobody believes anything anymore.) Besides, if smoking a lot of week killed you, a significant part of the population would have died in the 70s!

Color and watch stupid TV. Watch whatever takes your mind off your life. I like stupid, long-running superhero stuff (Agents of Shield, Legends of Tomorrow, etc). I love the super intricate nature of the adult coloring books that we have access to now.

Try Zentangles. They are a good way to waste time doing something artistic but not crazy hard, and it looks cool. You don't need to buy a book, as there is a lot online, but (don't tell the Mr) I have bought many of them.

Read, if possible. I can't read much anymore (a result of the Mirapex and then the 2800 mg of gabapentin I was put on when I complained about 24/7 RLS after the Mirapex mess), which is very hard since I'm a bibliophile. I read nonfiction only by marking up the pages with pencil, highighter, pen, whatever.

Audio Books. Your library likely has access to a lot of audio books. To keep my mind off of how crappy my life is right now, I can't just color or draw zentangles - I listen to music, podcasts, or audiobooks (free from the library). I have to occupy my brain with this stuff or I kinda want to die.

Garden. Rip weeds out. Dig extra deep holes. Pull up bushes you don't like. Go rogue and plant things where people will find them next year (I've been slowly doing this - there is a (very) small stream and walking path behind my house, and I'm slowly adding irises, etc that come out of my garden when I separate plants.

Amazon for hours looking for good deals. It's a total waste of time, but that's what I'm trying to do, so there we go.

PT exercises. Takes maybe 15 minutes of the day. Not really enough, but what the heck.

Walks. If you can walk without pain (I can't), artist's walks may be nice. All the old European writers did it, Frost did it, Thoreau, Emerson.... If you can walk, pack a lunch and be gone from home all day. I soooo wish I could do that.

Sleep. I sleep all day when it's bad. Or I'll lay there and play stupid phone games that I always lose. They have to be simple for me, as the Mirapex and gabapentin have made it impossible for me to focus on complicated things unless I write them out. And that's not fun.

Friends. If you have any (mine have mostly moved on since I've been sick and grieving (my mom and my littlest brother) for so long), see if they're interested in a longer term kind of thing, like sitting around and doing puzzles, or coloring together, or learning to paint, whatever. Being alone most of my days has been very detrimental to my mental health; hopefully you still have friends who are willing to come play with you or, even better, take you somewhere that isn't home.

I feel for you! I hope something here is helpful.

NeuroSeeker