For real though, playing Keen has for the past several years been a favorite of mine for burning off stress. Especially the really challenging mods because those hold a lot of focus. It's a good distraction. To be fair, other video games can be helpful too as long as it's intense enough to be engaging and simple enough to not break focus.
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Something else that's helped me a lot with certain types of stress has been taking magnesium regularly. This almost seems a little strange, but I have to share this because it was surprisingly really helpful for me. If I understand this correctly, magnesium is one of several minerals that humans require in their diet for healthy function, and it helps the body by absorbing stress. Specifically, the format of it that has really helped me has been a magnesium citrate drink mix that I take before bed (I don't suppose the brand matters much since it's literally just an atomic element, but the one I use is called
Natural Vitality Calm).
To properly give an explanation about what exactly this helps me with, in case anyone else has had anything similar, I think I'll have to give some backstory. A few years ago I had a pretty bad run-in with depression, and while I'm sure there's a lot I could say about how painful it was, specifically I will be talking about this weird hollow ache that came with that.
It was not like "pain" in how you might typically think of it or experience it, but that's really the only word I can use to describe the overwhelming feeling. It's unlike anything else I've experienced. It is very difficult to explain in words... I've thought of it as feeling like I have a "vortex" or "black hole" in my stomach (and I've even seen other people describe that, so we'll go with that). It would only happen at night for some reason, but it was every night and it was intense. Even a few years later when I had pretty much recovered from the depression (at least, I thought I had), that feeling still hung around sometimes (though it wasn't quite as overpowering) and some nights it still made it really hard to go to bed.
One day I was staying overnight at my grandma's house and she offered me this drink mix that's supposed to help with falling asleep. (It's a measure of mineral powder that you dissolve into a bit of hot water and then dilute with cold water. Has a sour taste to it. If you've ever had Emergen-C, it's sort of like that.) I was like "sure why not, it couldn't hurt" though I probably wasn't expecting much since I haven't had much success with sleeping aids or whatever in the past.
What I was definitely not expecting was the fact that during that night, I didn't have that "black hole" feeling at all. It didn't happen. Either that, or it went away pretty quick. (This was a year or two ago so I don't remember which it was, but the result is usually one of those two.) I was completely blown away. It's pretty rare in my experience for something to have such an immediate and noticeable effect. I guess magnesium is something I've been pretty deficient in.
Since then I've been taking the stuff every night. It has helped me a lot with being calm enough to actually try to lay down, though as for the actual "falling asleep" part it hasn't really helped me much that I've noticed. However, quite recently I skipped taking it for a few nights (I guess I've actually improved to the point where I've stopped having those weird pains) and I also had noticeably worse insomnia, so maybe it was helping on some level.
So yeah. Eat your veggies, I guess.
I suppose magnesium is known for helping to relieve stress, as seen in other forms such as epsom salts for bathing, or lotion to help with muscle aches.
The one caution for using the magnesium drink mix is to start with a small amount (less than the recommended serving) to test what works for you, because taking too much at once can cause diarrhea. Similarly using too much of the lotion stuff can cause skin irritation where used. I guess there's something about adapting to a larger amount slowly over time as your body gets used to it.
Anyway... this got really long, sorry. I just had to share this in case anyone else has experienced this, because holy cows, that feeling was awful and no one else should have to go through that. I actually have no idea if this works on anyone besides me, so... if anyone tries this, please let me know how it goes, if you can. I'd like to know if I can realistically recommend this.
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Other than that, I have learned some tricks that are helpful for dealing with anxiety, but I don't have the energy to elaborate on that at the moment. This post has been difficult enough to write as it is and I should stop spending time on it now. I will say that fresh air can be helpful sometimes if there's not too many allergens (apparently allergens can make anxiety worse while they're around).
And finally, yes, music can be helpful, though for me it has to be a very specific kind to be calming. Soft enough to be relaxing and upbeat enough to not also be depressing. I'll share a couple songs that work for me almost every time, which is saying something:
White Valley by DJ Helium [
YouTube ]
Sunshine of the Morning Sun by Dan Nyman AKA Area 51 [
Mod Archive /
YouTube ] (I should note that this one has a voice clip at the end, which can be startling if you're not expecting it.)