SELF-SOOTHING

What is self-soothing, how do we find ourselves as adults doing it and how do we best manage?

In my understanding, self-soothing is where we try to calm ourselves/ regulate our emotions the best way we know how. It's how we find ourselves managing with either disappointments, hurt, loss, just to mention a few. We mostly self-sooth when we don't know how to manage a particular situation at a particular time. In honest truth, I find it a form of reaction when we don't know what our response "should be"  and that is why most times you find most people resulting to drinking alcohol, others find solace in working out, some even hide in their work.

Self-soothing can be a very important trait for our wellbeing emotionally, but it can also be socially inappropriate or even self-injurious; these are what we term as negative self-soothing habits. 

Some examples of the negative self-soothing habits where you find someone trying to feel better by hurting themselves are: the non-lethal self mutilation kind, where one can result in cutting themselves with very sharp objects such as a knife or razor blade, others stick pins or even burn parts of their body just to mention but a few.

The other negative examples that can be socially inappropriate and recognized across the life-span are: nose picking, biting nails, thumb sucking, body rocking/swaying, alcohol and or other substance abuse.

We also have positive self-soothing habits eg: playing with ones pet, engaging in activities that allow for sensory stimulation (running, boxing, massages, showers), listening to music, watching movies, journaling, etc.

Let me know in the comments some of your views and advice on appropriate habits and where you lie.