Anxiety and Stress Relief Items

There are so many different places this could go. Hopefully it may help others being here. Please change as needed.

We use a lot of different items to help relieve anxiety stress, anger and other emotions. Often we are fiddling with something and have to keep our hands busy.

We have a soft rubber crackle toy that helps with anger because of the sound it makes. Harder stress balls to squeeze. We quite like soft squishy things.
We also like playing with chains or metallic things like sequin covered books which help keep us engaged.
We have a large collection of fake fur blankets and soft toys for comfort.
We did have a fidgit cube but we broke it very quickly.

Recently we brought a adult pacifier as we do chew and suck our fingers alot and grind our teeth when angry. We heard they also help with sleep and relaxation.
I do feel silly with the idea of a pacifier. it's a baby toy and I was disturbed to read it did have sexual uses to. But I am willing to try it.

Has anyone tried any other items they found sucessfull? Or had experances with ones mentioned above?

- syra

A deep breathing (or probably sighing) and massaging the knotted muscles in my forehead.

Yes many of those or similar. I am a big fan of sensory toys and fidgetting tools. My favourite is the Twiddle. I use it as a substitute for pulling/picking my nails (onychotillomania) which I do when I am nervous or frustrated. I also have fidget spinners (I love the reflection of light when spinning as it's mildly hypnotizing). I got chewable jewelry and pacifiers, spinner rings, a weighted blanket, and lots of plushies too.

Medical adult sized pacifiers from NUK are not baby toys, they are used therapeutically and sold as such for use by adults, hope that helps. But if you find it weird you could try chewelry instead, I have a really pretty black pendant made of silicone, I got it from a shop for autistics, I think it was called Stimtastic, but there are many such shops nowadays. I also clench and grind my teeth, even at night so I must wear a mouth guard at night

When I'm really angry I punch a pillow or put loud music on headphones and move, jump, dance, this helps me. I try not to scream, it does help but my neighbours would probably get worried or irritated if I would do this often so I try not to. I also listen to music on repeat and pace up and down. And I listen to the body scan / mindfulness from a meditation app or play app games to fall asleep or for relaxation.