What Works: Share Your Experience

We are interested in what works for you. Do you have a certain song, film, story, poem, piece of art, place, food, sport, or other activity that is usually helpful when you are upset, nervous, agitated, down, anxious, angry, etc.?

Here are some examples:

• "Frank Sinatra always makes me happy."
• "M&Ms and Marx Brothers movies for depression."
• "A long trail run up in the hills takes me to a different place, whether I'm down, angry, or anxious."
• "When I feel alone, I go to e.e. cummings, especially the poem with the line 'nobody, not even the rain, has such small hands'."
• "When I'm in a certain kind of down mood, Joni Mitchell takes me deeper into it in a way that I need sometimes…"
• "When I'm angry and when I'm sad: Ben & Jerry's Phish Food."

We are curious about whether there are common factors we can identify in what tends to be helpful for people. Some of it seems obvious: if we can be distracted, if we can gain some perspective.

But other factors are more subtle or variable: Do more people turn to uplifting songs, or to some form of blues music when they are down?  Does expressing or acknowledging how bad it is (through "blue" music, stories, art, etc.) in general tend to make it better or worse? What do you think?

Most importantly, what do you do that works for you?  We will gather this information, and periodically post submissions anonymously (see my Privacy Statement), so we can all benefit from each other's experience.

Submit your contribution here, making sure to tell us which mood state your solution is treating: