Hi, I’m very sorry you’re going through this. Here are some things that I’ve tried or have helped me in the past.
- call your local mental health crisis center/hotline and tell them your thoughts
- blinking really really fast for a minute, tired eyes fall asleep faster
- find a YouTube video of satisfying art methods or handmade candy and set a timer on your tv or phone to shut off automatically after an hour or so
- make some Earl Grey tea with honey in it and think about how you should totally drink tea more often and fall down a google rabbit hole of different kinds of tea until you eventually find the videos of SimplyNailogical bathing in tea, there are two
- google something you’ve been curious about and keep expanding the “people also asked” questions so more pop up and then fall down another rabbit hole
- if you’re in therapy, write all of your thoughts down to talk to your therapist about, you can also have a running list in an email that you send at the end of the week. Then your thoughts are in writing so they’re still in your possession, but not at the front of your mind, plus you then get to tell your therapist about the thoughts you’re having
- make a mental, or physical, list of everything you have to do the next day and in general. Like literally everything, including the appointments you’ve needed to make and might be avoiding, appointments you have to make in the next year like dental cleanings, texting/emailing someone back, groceries, that one project you’ve been wanting to start, everything you can possibly think of
- melatonin, but make sure not to take too much or you will get the worst upset stomach ever (the recommended is like 3mg, I’d google that though)
- brown noise, similar to white noise, but somehow better. They have all the other colors too, and there’s YouTube channels that post 10 hour long videos of them with no ads and a black screen
- buy a clear puzzle and lose your mind trying to solve it before going to sleep, you won’t want to think after trying to figure one of those out
- good old brainrot
- focus on someone else’s problems, my guilty pleasure is keeping up with YouTube drama, if you like dry humor and appreciate comedic timing, fat sajack on YouTube is one to check out. Some of her videos are up to two hours long
- The Basement Yard podcast, you could start with watching the funny clips on YouTube, they always make me feel better
- consider getting medication for sleep. This is the route I finally had to choose as my insomnia got really bad and I was a nightmare to deal with
I hope you find at least one of these useful or they help lead you to what would work best for you. Take care!
