BJDs as therapy...

I really like seeing and reading what everyone has had to say, it makes me feel not so alone. I spent six years in therapy for self mutilation and a severe anxiety disorder. I was on all sorts of medications. There was other stuff too, but those where the two biggest issues. I always had stuffed animals, as a security. I always wanted a doll, but I never knew where to get one, not at the time. I sort of "lost" who I was because of the way the medication made me. Lets just say it was a complicated endeavor.

I think it's a wonderful outlet, like back when I was little, I used to bring a toy with me when I played at the park or to go to another childs' house. It's like going back to the basics in socialization. Gently easing my way back into being around people, who like the same things, and I have something in common. I do not talk at all around strangers, and I tend to "hide" alot. I just don't feel "safe", but having something as little as a doll (or any kind of art) bridges that gap.
Just talking about getting my first BJD has really done wonders for my mood as of late. I told my brother, who's a Marine, that I wanted to get my "Johny" a DI's uniform and a matching Dress Blues outfit. Then they should take pictures when I get the clothes.
Just little conversations like that, however silly, helps.

You learn a lot about someone through their hobbies, and for this community, their dolls(s).

 

I hadn't posted here before, not quite sure why but after reading all the other posts I thought I'd share my experience too I go to counselling at the moment because of growing up with abusive parents (both of which I'm out of contact with right now) and when I mentioned my hobby my counseller said dolls are really helpful. We didn't go into it but I know that focusing on my dolls helps me be comfortable in being alone and inspires me to be creative which helps even more. They fill my thoughts a lot and with all the customisation possibilities I'm usually buying little things so I've always got something to get excited about and look forward too. They helped me out of a really rough patch and I'm getting better now, so it's all good

 

This.
I don't know if it's the same for anyone else, but I tend to need that little bit of excitement and hope.

 

My husband recently announced that he might be getting a contract in Georgia at the end of the month, one that could potentially take 18 months. While it pays well, and we could use the money, I have a hard time sleeping when he's away from home and I tend to be a little isolated and painfully shy (anxiety attacks and other issues). If this goes through and he does need to be away, he's going to help me pay for the cost of my first doll, so I at least have another human face to look at that isn't my mother-in-law (A wonderful person, but there's things I can't talk to her about).

Making things for the dolls also seems to be quite therapeutic. I've begun making little quilts and pillows to sell and just the act of cutting and pinning is very soothing. I may expand to doing some things out of Fimo, but that's something for the future, the quilts are expensive enough.

 

Agreed. For being someone with no siblings, never had a pet in my life (or even in the house) and being in a bit of a rough spot right now, it's oddly strange and empty at times. I guess me being anti-social doesn't help much either. My dolls fill that void nicely and as many have said before, just looking at them makes me smile and brings a sense of excitement and hope as well.

Now I'm not saying "Hey, I have my dolls, I don't need to talk to other humans" of course. XD But they do seem more understanding at times. Plus, they allow me the joy and pleasure of my other hobby: Photography. And with them so easy to work with and they never talk back, it's therapy all in itself.

 

Well. I am glad he will help you get your doll. And Shall is my favourite DoT, too
I know part of your feeling. I don't have a problem leaving the house, but I just don't like to if I don't have to. I don't "party" a lot or visit people, so if I don't have a job, I pretty much stay home, and go out to do groceries, and to walk the dog, and that's it.
I have been laid off for 3 months now, and my fiance KNOWS that when I don't have anything to do, I go insane. I can't be bored! But when I got laid off he was happy because that job was going to drive me to kill lol AND he wants me at home if possible, to take care of him, and the house, and the dog.
Since I've been here, he's been fed better (I have more time), the dog is getting trained and is no so anxious, since I hang out with him all day, and the house is clean and organized and I don't have to spend every spare minute on my weekends doing it! Now on weekends I can sit and enjoy and make special meals etc.
But that's how I got my doll. I was planning on saving. Was even pondering a lay away, since I had my paychecks to count on for steady income. I'm glad I didn't get into a layaway mess then. But he told me that when I got my last pay from my job, to go ahead and buy my doll, so I had something to do (making clothes and things), and it has worked like a charm! I am trying to sell some stuff to fund the little things I need for my doll (just made enough to buy her a wig in the right colour and a pair of heels to model the dresses) and between sewing and making things and my Etsy store, on top of the things I have to do at home, that keeps me busy and I haven't gone nuts yet lol I can't believe I've been home for 3 months and I haven't turned into "impossible-to-live-with-Gio"!!!! yay!!!!

I quilt, too. I prefer to do it by hand which takes longer, but is more therapeutic, and I am working on my first doll quilt, but since I was going to get an MSD, my doll won't be able to use it, so I'll put that up for sale, too, when it's done.
I would love to see some of yours sometime if you don't mind

18 months is a long time. I hope he gets a weekend here and there or something to come home and see you. But sometimes it's good for the men to be away for a little bit, too. Gives you a chance to worry about you a bit more when they are not around needing stuff

I don't think I "need" it per se... but I certainly enjoy it
We have a new wig and a new pair of heels coming in less than a week now
I never thought a doll would "keep me sane" in a way, but I have to say I'm not bored. The only thing that would make this better is if I could get an income out of it, even if it's not a lot, but something, so I don't have to ask him for money when I want to go get some frivolity
He didn't even understand the doll. Why a doll lol but he made an extra mortgage payment I was supposed to make so I could get her. He loves me

 

I snuck one of my dolls to my therapist once after talking about them a few times. She said it was neat I meet people because of my dolls because of my issues with being social. She even took a photo of him with her phone.

 

My dolls do help me with my social anxiety and bi-polar. Don't know that I could have convinced my parents of that though. They think it is pretty crazy when I say that now. My mom just can't get over the concept of her tom-boy daughter collecting dolls. She says it is easier to believe my husband doing it than me doing it. I was talking with my dad the other day about our sensory issues (I get them from him but in his day you didn't get diagnosed you hid it) and how much the dolls help me. He can't understand why I would choose to go to conventions with all those people and the noise, like me he finds it extremely painful. I told him taking a doll really helps me feel more in control. It is the weight and the smooth resin I think. My mom told him he needed to get one and he said he would rather just never go out. Oh well.

I am actually interested to see if BJD's will be helpful to my son in a therapeutic way. He is autistic as well as having sensory processing issues like I do. He actually copes with his sensory processing far better than I do now but I would like to see if dolls have a similar benefit to him. Or what other benefits they may have for him. He has been asking for a dollzone bunny for a while and will be getting one for his birthday next month. Of course just the fact that he wants it and will enjoy it is a good enough reason for me to be willing to buy one for him as a birthday gift (especially since it is the only thing on his list) but I am still curious.

 

actually that is one of the reasons why i want to own a bjd i think they will help me reach my inside self
i mean i think they can help you without you even realizing that

 

I'm hesitant to write this out in the mood I'm in, but this topic feels pertinent to that state of mind, and I was kinda thinking about this earlier.

If it's important, I am autistic/Asperger's (both appear on my diagnosis, yes) as well as depression-anxiety. Usually the anxiety is stronger, but when the depression part breaks through it's not fun.

Erm, weird aside, but I do know a way in which they can be the opposite of therapeutic; I have family in the hobby and sometimes seeing the dolls creates feelings of anxiety and pressure to do things beyond their capability.

Not so for me, though... I've actually been in the hobby for almost four years, but it was all of a year ago that I became at all active in the artisan part of the hobby, which I have discovered can be even more helpful than picking them up and playing with them (and believe me, it is difficult to walk past the Resinsoul Jun I got for my birthday without picking him up and playing with his cute hands).

I have a problem occasionally with self-confidence, and within the last few years--while in the hobby, but dormant, I could add--I have had and gradually lost a number of hobbies due to my negative feelings about myself in them. I draw very infrequently, write even less, and am mortified to ever play an instrument again, despite how much I love music and my affinity for remembering tunes. I got so depressed about those activities after a while that I just stopped doing them, even though the more recent times I tried again, I was positively rewarded.

Anyway--the dolls for me began to take on a new light more recently from doing something as simple as restringing for the first time. They just felt like a way to start over. I look at talented people in this hobby and instead of thinking "I could never do that!" like I would with other things, my reaction is "I have to try that!!!" Most of the dolls I have owned over the past 3 and a half years are now WIPs at some level of progress, and I feel fulfilled and curious about playing with them. Nanuri, my would-have-been-practice head, has so far been my first mod, sanding repair and soon to be first faceup. And all within the last two weeks. Earlier today I felt engorged on despair and was thinking utterly hopeless things--I thought of my sweet Nanuri and stopped crying and looked up what pastels I ought to use for her lips.

Long personal rant is long but hopefully this wasn't a useless contribution. >_<

 

Even though I don't have one, I feel that way. When I get depressed or angry, I'll flee to my favorite BJD sites and figure out wigs/outfits for them if I were to buy them and then figure prices. I'm pretty calmed by the time I'm done.

 

Even though I don't have a doll yet either, just looking at them or reading about them on the computer makes me feel calm and happy, too. When I get my first though, I bet it will be even better.

 

I suffer with Fibromyalgia and depression , and the bjd hobby is therapeutic for me, but I find it also makes me feel uptight sometimes too, I get wound up when I want to sell a doll and can't sell it, and trying to find the money for bjd things can be stressful.....in fact I'm thinking of having a breather from buying dolls for a while . I love having bjds though....they are wonderful things! and wouldn't want to be without at least a couple of them in my life.

 

I think that dolls (and in my case also My Little Ponies) can be a calming, soothing hobby. I have a drawer with some of my childhood ponies and other ponies I cherish, I call it my "happy drawer" because every time I open it I smile.

I think that acting out, making clothes, and just maybe having your doll as a "friend" can all be very therapudic. Stress relief in a way, and just something fun to do. Fun is good.

 

I've been clinically depressed since I was eight or so, and wasn't diagnosed until I was already in college with having Asperger's Syndrome/High Functioning Autism (and IBS, argh, there was like two months where I couldn't eat anything!). I'd been having a bad year, and my mood had been really unstable.

Then I got my boy. The whole day that he arrived, it was like nothing could make me upset. A lot of times, even on a good day, some little thing can send my mood crashing, but I was just... happy. And since then, when I've felt down, I've been able to just hold him, he's at a very comfortable weight for me, where having him in my arms, or lying back and setting him on my chest, makes me feel better physically, in addition to his being a security blanket-esque comfort.

(Everything about him makes me squee, too! His resin is very smooth-- even the seams I can see you can barely feel!-- so sometimes after I wash my hands I just take him out of his box and touch his arm or his feet or hold his little hand. And looking at him makes me ridiculously happy, he's just so beautifully sculpted!)

Plus, his character is very cheerful and upbeat. So when I get really down, I can try and put myself in a Vince-ier mindset. Sure, he's a doll, but he's a cute, cheeky, happy little doll, and yeah, he makes me happy. And unlike my cat, who has a mind of his own, if I need someone to sit on my lap, Vince won't decide he'd rather chase a moth in the other room *grin*.

=^__^=
Anneko

 

My dolls are support to me. Just like friends and family, though that feeling of support is stronger from friends and family.
You know, I worked hard and saved up a lot of money to be able to afford my dolls. So that's a connection in the first place.
Whenever I look at them I realise how much I worked and saved up my money to get them. And that makes me proud.

Also, the dolls have so much character. Their face tells a lot about their personality, and the rest of the story simply evolves in
your mind from that point on. That's another connection point with my dolls for me. I like writing and spend a lot of time writing
their background stories and such. I guess the personality you give to your dolls depends on the expression and mold of a doll,
but also depends greatly upon your own mood the moment you get him or her and start deciding what kind of personality you
want for the doll.

 

Thank you so much, everyone, for mentioning your different conditions. It's made me feel a little braver about my own. I suffer from anxiety/depression and IBS, as I see some other members have also mentioned. On top of which, I am taking care of two early Alzheimer's Parents who live right next door, one of which is wheelchair bound. There's nobody else in my family with IBS, but the anxiety/depression seems to run right through the women in my Dad's side of the family. Joy.....all these anxious women in one place! (That's a very rueful grin, in case you can't tell)

Anyway, when I got my first doll last July, I really didn't expect the hobby to be as helpful as it was to me. It wasn't just that I had something new to look at....that's helped for awhile previously, but it always wears off quickly. It was just something about the dolls, and making things for them, and thinking up little backstories for them, that really took my mind off of less pleasant things. I usually have one or more of my dolls on hand to look at and enjoy, as even just glancing at them makes me feel better. It's really nice to get on DoA and browse around too. I don't get out much because of the IBS and the difficulty of being away from the parents, but getting on the forum and seeing all the other dolls, and reading all the different posts does open the world up a little more for me. I'm really grateful to have found something that I enjoy so much, that I don't have to leave home to be involved in. (And that's a REAL smile, this time!)

Thanks for sharing, everyone.

 

BJDs are initially and ironically an art medium when it comes to the customization and individualization of each doll. They are art and art is where the heart is. I agree that BJDs are therapeutic because everything that brings one solace, harmony and happiness deserves to be called therapeutic except for drugs, reckless behavior, alcohol and etc; aka the harmful stuff.

 

Though I do not have major disorders like some have in this thread, I do and will say I suffer from mild depression and schizophrenia , that has worsened with marriage, not due to marriage but due to my husband being in the navy and having lived on Guam for 2 years. It was a loooonnnggg time, and since I am not out-doorsy at all I depended on online friends to curb my isolation when my husband was away for months at a time. I really wish i would have found an inexpensive doll then so maybe I wouldnt have been bad, but even moving into the states the isolation feels worse since I know i can but at the same time i cant. Which is why I am hoping to get my Moon soon. Since my husband will be going up to Virgina for 2 weeks, be home for 5 days then goes underway til December. I dont make many friends and most of them i dont readily see every day. Reading your stories about how therapeutic and involving your boys and girls gives me a bit of hope that taking pills doesn't give. Plus with making clothes it gives me the distraction when my friends from home cant be online when I need them. So I am hoping Moon will be my muse, my model, and a therapist.

 

I have my share of personal problems, most of them I'd rather not reveal.
I hope this one doesn't seem like a whiny or stupid problem to choose for this thread, but most recently my heart was broken. The next thing I knew I had purchased a couple dolls. They are both of the opposite sex.

I like their sculpts but part of me thinks I was just looking for some new companions that can't hurt or betray me. I wonder if anyone else has bought dolls purposely during this sort of situation, or if they became more attached to their dolls during a traumatizing relationship with a real person. My dolls are the only things keeping me occupied from sad thoughts right now. They weren't meant to be therapeutic, but they are really working as if they were.