Distraction techniques?

[Kroko]

Hey,

What are all of your favorite distraction techniques? I find that if a distraction is intense enough, I get over an anxious/panicky moment much more easily. It makes sense because distraction simply puts your mind off the anxiety.

I've often toyed with the idea that if I could just think of something distracting enough that I could sort of pull out of my sleeve whenever I'd start feeling the panic build up, I could go anywhere and do just about anything without a worry! It's probably not quite that simple, though...

Anyway, I was eating some spicy food and had a silly idea. What if you carried a little bit of superhot sauce or something like that which would pack a major punch when you took some, forcing you to focus on the heat in your mouth instead of your impending panic attack or whatever? Do you suppose that might actually work, because surely your mind would be on that if the burning were intense enough?

At any rate, I find that for me the distraction has to be really, well, distracting. A lot of the common suggestions, mostly based around focusing on your environment, aren't distracting enough for me at all.

[Agadch]

Distractions have to be really distracting for me too. People always suggest reading or watching tv as a distraction but they never take my mind off my anxiety. I can't really think of any distraction techniques I have that actually work except maybe exercise. I love the hot sauce idea, I'll have to try that

[aprilmoon]

The best distraction I have is to do some crafting.
I go off into another place when I'm doing it
I love sorting out the materials that I'm going to use,the colours, textures ext,then decide what I'm going to make
The hands on the clock just whizz round when I'm really engrossed,and being creative is very healing to me.
I'd recommend it to anybody.

[Stuz]

going for a walk when feeling anxious, exercise. Not always possible when you're at work, dont want to get a reputation as someone that wonders around the office all day