As a child, I used to jump on the bed or swing on swings to reduce hyperactive energy. I found these calming, and enjoyed the repetitive motions. Running never worked as well (also I have asthma, and running too much tends to trigger coughing fits for me). My mother noticed that I was using the bed to jump on too much, so she bought me a trampoline. I became pretty dependent on the trampoline as a calming activity. When I would get overstimulated, I would listen to music and jump on the trampoline. I rarely went even a day without jumping on it. I used trampolines (and in that course of time broke many trampolines) from age 11 to age 22. When I was 22, however, I had a very unfortunate accident on my trampoline. I slipped through a hole, and twisted my knee and fell at a high enough speed and hard enough force to tear my ACL and lateral meniscus. I've had knee surgery since, but no longer can jump on a trampoline.
It has now been years of on and off painful overstimulated hyperactive energy. Sometimes I can go swing on a swing at a nearby park, but in the dead of winter or at night, that becomes far more difficult. So I usually avoid it altogether at those times. I also pace and object-flap, but that only does so much (by which I mean, very little when I am too hyper).
Although I'm not terribly overstimulated at the moment (I'm actually tired and heading to bed soon), I wanted to prepare for next time, and get some ideas about good ways to release this sort of energy effectively. Thoughts? Suggestions?
25 Feb 2015, 2:07 am
