Coping Mechanisms

When you’re in high school, its kind of a tough time, isn’t it? You’re going through puberty, finding out who you are and what you want to be or should i say, who you want to be, in the midst of that, you’re lumbered with TONS of homework that seems to never let up, as well as finding friends, or maintaining friendships, boyfriends/girlfriends, its a messy and crazy time.

When thousands of kids are trapped in a small space, called school, for 6+ hours a day, there is going to be conflict of some form.

I’m not one to tell anyone how to live or cope, especially high school, but i have learnt from my mistakes and i hope i can help any of you.

In my high school experience, i got into the ‘me/gothic/ phase which was a target for bullying, conflict and all the things. I will make a whole separate blog about my emo/goth’ phase in the future, but with all the normal things teens go through, i added onto it for myself by changing how i look and dress.

At home, my parents were going through a divorce which as a teen, no matter the reason for the divorce, i blamed myself, a lot. I think thats normal though. I was going through a teen angsty stage where i was getting in trouble at school, skipping class and hurting myself.

Im not going to hide how i coped in high school, but i don’t want it to trigger anyone and i don’t want it to be glorified into thinking its normal or okay, there are plenty of other ways to deal with life, school, work or whatever you’re going through.

But lets start with me. I’m making a whole new post about self harm in the future, but today, i’ll skim over it. One of my friends, introduced me into self harm, not deliberately, i don’t think, but i got curious and started to do it myself. My self harm of choice, was cutting, which became my addiction quite quickly. Which in turn, it became my coping mechanism.
If something went bad during my day or somebody said something to upset me, i blamed myself, for everything, so i punished myself with my cutting.
I don’t condone self harm, at all.

These days, being a little older, a little wiser, i guess. A big sister to you, if you will.
I strongly suggest finding a hobby to use as a coping mechanism, i started a youtube channel, its not a permanent thing, it wasn’t super consistent and i didn’t care about subscribers or followers, it was just an outlet for me.

Writing was also a great way for my to express myself without hurting myself, as you can tell, i still love it even now.
But as a teen, i used to write poetry, it was a little sad and depressing but i helped, by getting it out of my system.
Its a little retro now, but it goes in with the writing theme,  my mum set up pen pals for me, it was a website back in the day where its $20 to register and you get matched with 10 people all over the world, to write to, that are around my age and i was matched with mainly girls, from memory.

A lot of people are health and fitness conscious which is great! If you’re a sporty person or would like to be, working out could be a great outlet.
Recently I’ve been getting into yoga and meditation, its so calming and relaxing, perfect for the jumbled up times of teen years but hey, i know its not for everyone.

I don’t know about you, but when i was in school, i didn’t have many friends, not a lot of people i could confide in with my darkest secrets, but if you do, call up your best friend and say hey, I’m struggling at the moment, can we talk, lets grab coffee.
To sit in a cafe on a quiet street and a cup of warm coffee with your bestie, that could be the best coping mechanism of all.