In the spirit of honesty, growth, and not pretending I have my life together, here is a completely serious and medically unreviewed list of my current coping skills.

• Avoiding Mirrors
  Not because of vanity. Because mirrors ask questions I’m not prepared to answer. Like ‘Girl why are you going anywhere dressed like that?’
  
• Snacks as Emotional Infrastructure
  Are they nutritional? Sometimes. Sometimes I’d be better off nutrient wise eating the damn box
  Are they morale? Absolutely. Until you spot the mirror and it says ‘maybe the cookies are a bit much’
  
• Pretending It’s Fine (Short-Term Use Only)
  Works best in public settings, family functions, and when someone says, “So how have you been?”
  I get bored answering that so I state how I’d like to have been. Mirroring other people gets redundant too.
  Start making up stories or stop talking to people or be boring and say fine are your only options.
  
• Talking to Pets Like They’re Union Reps
  They understand. They always understand. You know who you don’t have to pretend to be fine to? A dog. Dogs can get you through shit. I’d like to say the same for cats but a lot of them would be judging you. Its part of their job description.
  
• Strategic Dissociation (Light Version)
  Not the scary kind.
  Just enough to get through Target without crying in seasonal décor. Besides it helps the chores go faster when you lose hours at a time.
  
• Writing Things Down So My Brain Can Stop Holding Them Hostage
  Once it’s on paper, my mind is like, “Cool, not my problem anymore.” The problem is remembering to write the note and where you put it, because you set it down somewhere didnt you? Writing stuff down helps but if you cant remember where you put it tends to pile onto the existing issues. More baggage, yay
  
• Canceling Plans Early So I Don’t Feel Like a Villain Later
  This is called foresight. And self-respect. And exhaustion. Better plan, don’t make concrete plans, then you can’t flake out of them. Now THAT’S foresight.
  
• Rewatching Shows I’ve Already Seen
  No surprises. No emotional ambushes. Just vibes. That is the great thing about having a shitty memory, its basically brand new shit.
  
• Lowering the Bar and Then Respecting It
  Today’s goal is not productivity.
  Today’s goal is “nothing got worse.” Today I met my goal of not fucking more stuff up. Some does that is deserving of a medal.
  
• Letting Things Be Weird Instead of Trying to Fix Them Immediately
  Some days aren’t broken.
  They’re just… a lot. I get lost in the Overwhelm.

These aren’t glamorous coping skills.
They won’t make it into a self-help book.
But they’re keeping the lights on, and honestly? That counts.

If you’re doing what you can with what you have, you’re not failing.
You’re coping. And sometimes that’s the win.

Til next time gang, take care of yourselves, and each other.

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