♡ EMOTIONAL DISTRESS KIT: WHAT, WHY & HOW TO USE TO COMBAT NEGATIVE EMOTIONS ♡

 hellloooooo! I have been thinking about this topic for a while and thought "if I use this in my non SW life, why not use it in my SW life?" - which brings me to the topic of the ♡ EMOTIONAL DISTRESS KIT ♡

I have personally made my own distress (self soothing) kit & have been using it when needed for 6 years and it was a skill I learned while doing DBT! 

💕 WHAT IS AN "EMOTIONAL DISTRESS KIT"?  aka self soothing sensory kit 💕 

♡ A self-soothing sensory kit is designed to be accessible when someone is experiencing heightened emotions or distress. Self-soothing is done using the five senses – sight, sound, taste, touch and smell. The kit can be as small or large as you wish – the idea is to find items that help you cope during overwhelming situations. You can keep them in a designated area, whether that is in a box, cupboard or play area. They are there to provide positive feelings through the use of external cues. 

💕 IDEAS OF WHAT TO KEEP IN YOUR KIT 💕

♡ love letter to yourself, letters / notes from friends/family/loved ones

♡ photos that make you happy or feel safe

♡ tea bags, hot cocoa --- something you can drink that's soothing! 

♡ (personally) I keep CBD gummies / oil in mine 

♡ headphones so you can listen to a playlist, asmr, or 528hz frequencies

♡ slime, play dough, stress ball, etc. ( my fav slime company is this brand 💕 )

♡ essential oils, small candle - something that is soothing to smell ( my favs are lavender, hot cocoa candles, & vanilla )

♡ small journal + pen to write down emotions / thoughts / overall processing ( I love this pink one that's pictured )

♡ nail polish, rubber bands or hair ties, little activity books, etc that can be used to distract you 

💕 EMOTIONS THESE KITS ARE DESIGNED FOR & HOW THEY HELP 💕

( a lot of this is from my own personal experience, so if it helps with others not listed - please comment below! )

♡ anxiety / stress : when you're really fidgety, overwhelmed, or just in a straight up panic attack these things can help diminish the feelings and not just have the results like "just breathe" does LOL. the journal, cbd,  essential oils, & anything that's distracting like slime or rubber bands help me the most with my anxiety. it hasn't gotten *rid* of a full blown panic attack for me, but it has helped me with general anxiety, low grade panic attacks, and seeing how i can at least be mindful *during* a panic attack and acquire x,y,z skills which I love having skill wise. 

♡ anger / frustration : when you're feeling like the entire universe is pissing you off, use the stress balls. write letters that you'll never send in the journal to whatever / whoever is causing you these feelings, and do something called OPPOSITE ACTION 💗 once you have began to calm down, start to self soothe with some essential oils or a hot bath with some epsom salts or bath bomb! a lot of anger is just feeling WAY to much and feeling like there isn't enough time to process or feel the emotions if that makes sense - so when you slow it down, acknowledge the frustration, and work to bring it down, you find the root of whatever it may be and be able to mindfully work through skills to help combat it.

♡ fear : everyone gets scared sometimes. we all need comfort & we all need things that make us feel good. obviously we cannot rely on people 24/7 and relying on yourself is truly a wonderful skill. when you're feeling scared, look at your internal little kid and ask what they would want / need because they can help navigate you ( believe me, I know I sound like a crazy lady rn but IT WORKS I didn't believe any of this would help me until I actually tried it ) my inner kid loves : cozy blankets, warm scents, fuzzy socks, turning my brain off to watch a funny movie or show, hot tea, & napping. doing all of those things that make me physically and mentally better automatically makes me feel safer as well. 

♡ self harm : (trigger warning) 

self harm and I were best friends for over ten years and I stopped almost 5 years ago. it has been extremely fucking hard from day one to even now, I have genuinely no idea when it will *not* feel extremely hard but, that's just part of life I guess. my past with self harm is 75% of the reason as to why I even have one of these kits and why I practice opposite actions when I feel the urges. when I disassociate, feel numb to everything or just beyond frustrated with whatever situation, I use a variety of things to get me to not self harm ( and when I used to and still had slip ups 5 years ago, my therapist and I agreed that if I at least TRIED these methods and that if all of these didn't work - at least I was mindfully self harming. no, I'm not trying to say to give into urges or anything like that, but we're only human and slip ups happen - we're already hard on ourselves, so why be harder? ) ANYWAYS - I would trace ice on my skin or use those skin safe drip candles over whatever areas I wanted to harm along with journaling about how high my urges were on a scale of 1-10, why I'm feeling the emotions I'm feeling, the emotions I was feeling & go back and do it again 20 mins later to see if it even went down 1 level. rubber bands helped me too, I would just keep them on my wrist while playing my "I hate everything" playlists lol and reading notes I left for myself and from other people. I have more tips on combating self harm that worked for me, but that's a separate topic. 

I hope you can create a personalized emotional distress kit that you can just leave in your closet, glove box, night stand, under the bed, wherever is easily accessible just so you can try this out! ♡

love,

emotional stripper ♡