Ideas for surviving the bad times?

I'm wondering what my fellow borderlines do in the bad times - to get through them. For what it's worth, I train and build engines in my garage. I find that concentrating on something physical keeps the painful thoughts at bay. Sometimes...

I try to stay busy...
But it doesn't always work.
Yesterday I was just having badness...
And as much as I tried to focus on my designs for my corporate identity...
Well... like you said it doesn't always work.

I had a friend over...
She was a nice distraction for a while...
But in the end I just went to sleep.

Sleep, or "altered states of perception" (drunk, stoned, whatever) is my only sure bet on escaping how I feel when "the bad times" come.
I recommend the sleep. It doesn't really fix anything, but it lets you rest for a while.

I watch films , and tv shows , and i escape into a my own reality , imagine 3d movies? Well i try to put myself into the movie , i try and become the characters , i know it sounds odd , but its how i escape , i always play some online games and take roleplaying the next level.

Because its virtually impossible to teach me anything new , i teach myself new things , for instance over the last 3 years ive studied how to create computers , now im studding chemistry , i find new ways of making myself smarter , i guess in its own way its a defense mechanism so people wont think im dumb.

I take a super-hot bath and ask my girlfriend to sing me/play me guitar to sleep.

I burn candles in a dark room (otherwise I start fires in my bathroom and that's pretty dangerous, so, uh, I don't recommend that. )
I also try to lay down on my back and just feel the feeling until I think I can move on to one of my DBT skills. A really helpful one for me is "Describe" which is where you just pick out objects and things in your room or surroundings and you use really base, simple words to describe them to yourself (I like to do this outloud cause it keeps me out of my head)
Like, I will stare at posters on my wall and say "*thing* is *color* and is shaped like *shape*" and so on.

I quit all my defense mechanisms cold turkey and it is REALLY, REALLY HARD. I try to remember the bad things about them, such as:

1. If I drink, my medication won't work as well and I'll be double depressed for two days after.
2. If I cut, I get a scar and my therapist will want to send me to the hospital which I DON'T want to go to.
3. If I abuse my xanax, I will run out of it before my next refill and I HATE going through withdrawal.
4. If I make a fire in the bathroom, I could burn the house down.

I also like to imagine my anger or sadness as a gas or a liquid. I try to imagine it leaking out of my ears or hovering around my body and sort of imagine myself "willing" it away from me. It's weird, but my imagination is way overactive.

I usually need to be alone to calm down
Reading and coloring or crossword puzzles can take my mind off things and kind of "reset" my mood...
The best thing though is going for a walk but I have a hard time to get moving when I don't feel good

thanks for sharing everyone. There are some ideas worth trying...

Thanks to my DBT Workbook, I now have many new ideas.

I recommend at least flipping through it in a bookstore; there's about two chapters just on ideas to distract your thoughts and calm your emotions down.

Ignore the fact that I think it's a condescending few chapters. I'm just in a bad mood.

I agree with sleeping. It stops the painful thoughts, and the situation becomes clearer when I wake.

I don't know if you believe in God, but I do, and prayer always helps me. I sometimes fast along with prayer. I also ask friends and family to pray for me.

colicha wrote:The best thing though is going for a walk but I have a hard time to get moving when I don't feel good
I usually need to be alone to calm down
Reading and coloring or crossword puzzles can take my mind off things and kind of "reset" my mood...
The best thing though is going for a walk but I have a hard time to get moving when I don't feel good

I also have a hard time moving when I'm not feeling good, its like I'm 'stuck' in my head and my body has no energy. Its worse in the mornings. I used to write a 'to do' list the night before, so that I could wake up and follow it. The first thing on my list was 'get out of bed'. These days I use a timer to try to make myself start doing things which I have decided to do, but more often than not I ignore the timer or just keep re-setting it.
Like right now, I'm supposed to be getting ready to go to the gym, but instead, I'm sitting here browsing forums. Its not like I have set myself a really hard goal at the gym, its been a few weeks since I went and all I have told myself I have to do is get there and stand on a treadmill for 10 minutes..... that's it!

But still....... if I leave it long enough, I wont be able to go because I have other responsibilites to other people at certain times and I have to do those.

ok..... I'm logging off and going...... right now..........

(30 seconds later)....... see, I didn't do it