Anyone else suffer from mild or heavy social anxiety? Sculpting helps. Most of the time. If so, what else helps you guys become at ease from anxiety? I know, I know... exercise. Though when I'm exercising all I'm thinking is, "Man, I should really be sculpting." :confused:
I actually feel that the more I lock myself in and are sculpting, the more detached I become from reality. And I when I am social with friends my head is still sculpting. ._. I'm starting to think that it's not healty right now. Forst of to work for 12h ( I have an long way to work) then home to osculpt, eat some, and then go to bed.
I use sculpting (as well as drawing, playing musical instruments, sewing and other creative stuff) as a kind of safety valve to keep anxiety and depression on manageable levels. I have a few friends who share these interests, so sometimes we meet up to sit down and make something together, or people just bring their own projects to work on. That works pretty well for me. If it wasn't for that I would probably not meet people very often at all. As a bonus I find the artistic development goes much faster when not just your finished work, but also the process of getting there, gets "seen." (Does that make sense?) It is as if, when someone is watching what you are doing, you are better at noticing things you need to practice on. When just doing things in my own little bubble of reality I often get stuck and don't improve much at all, no matter how much I practice. In a way, this forum works a little bit like that too.
I don't really find sculpting affects social anxiety at all for me... It does at least give me a thing to talk about with people, but the techniques I use and the whole BJD thing ("They're dolls, but not like... baby dolls, they're not for kids... they're for adults... and they're expensive... Like, really expensive...") require so much explanation that I end up feeling like super awkward penguin trying to explain it all, only to get a "Huh, interesting... well, I work in an office," type response out of most people. I did have one person go "OMG 3D PRINTED BJDS THAT'S AWESOME" but that happens basically never. Just seems like another thing that makes me different, and harder to connect with people. What does help me at least is just..... sucking it up and doing it anyway. Forcing myself to make small talk with people, forcing myself to attend social events even though I'd rather stay home... Sometimes it's painful and exhausting, sometimes it ends up being okay, but it does mean I get more practice at it. I was talking to an acquaintance fairly recently and... sort of admitted to her that I am extremely socially awkward and interacting with people is exhausting and extremely intimidating to me, and stuff like the event we were at (big crowd full of people, everyone speaking Dutch when my Dutch is not great) is absolutely terrifying... and she was like, "Wow, you'd never know it the way you are, you seem fine to me." It was a very odd moment, but I took it as a compliment. I can wear my normal mask pretty convincingly, I guess.
Left to my own devices I am pretty epically paranoid and terrified of social contact. I'll stand in the rain over sharing a bus stop...and I won't board the bus if it looks "too full". We won't even go into my "rules" that govern my ability to cross a street! I should be medicated, but I worry for my poor liver after all the ibuprofen I've shoveled in my face over the years. All my doll related activities help keep me centered. It's the reason I was so drawn to them to start with. Modding, sculpting, painting, even doll meets (a social function where I have a guaranteed subject in common that I can talk about for hours!), they are all tools for me. I have found that sculpting can even ease some of my migraines. [Doesn't work for stress headaches, though!] I am very grateful for the outlet that sculpting and painting has brought me.
Wow guys thanks for the responses. I got anxiety even posting this thinking, "Omg, I need to delete that post!" xD I literally read every word very slowly of all your responses as being anxious can sometimes be a huge factor in my life. I go through phases. Months of extreme high then probably days, weeks, months of unreasonable anxiety. I can relate to EVERYTHING you have all said so far.
I have complex ptsd among other chronic disorders. It's the main reason I'm unable to work and one of the reasons why I turned to sculpting. Working with my hands, and especially working with clay is very 'zen' for me. Ptsd, besides the common flashbacks, nightmares, panic and hypervigilance, has a great influence on your ability to concentrate. It also puts a strain on your memory. In bad months I loose all control of my life, because I'm just too distracted to even pay bills in time or to eat. (which is why I turn to others in those times to help me out with anything business-related) Sculpting helps me focus. It also helps me calm down. And even though in bad days I can sculpt things that makes me think "what the heck was I doing here??" later on, the repeated motion of my hands is comforting. So yeah, sculpting rocks!
