Your Safety

Developing a healthy way to cope with your situation and feelings will be key. Find things that help you relax--- this could include talking with a friend, taking a walk, trying a new hobby or reading a book. By finding things to distract yourself and promote peace in your life, you are creating coping skills to deal with the stress you are experiencing. Remember that there are as many coping skills as there are people in the world. Each person is going find different coping skills that work for them.

Click on the list of coping skills below to get your creative wheels turning. This list might contain the perfect coping skill for you, or at least it can get you on the road to discovering something that really helps. When you find something that works for you, write it down so you can remember the next time you are feeling stressed.

COPING SKILLS list

Now that you have worked out ways to get support and handle your feelings, it is important to work on a plan so that you can keep yourself safe. Again, this will be unique just to you and your situation. Click on the link below for a worksheet that can help you work through this process. Print it. Fill it out. Hang it by your bed, stick it in your binder; keep it handy.

YOUR Safety Plan worksheet

CREATE a Safety Plan worksheet

You have a great future ahead of you. Make changes, get support, find ways to work through your emotions so that you can see the hope in your life. Hope is crucial. Hope changes everything.