Art therapy is a great tool to use in addition to seeking professional help. Always get professional advice. This blog is meant to show you how it can help. I personally have used it to express many things. Such as what I went through in the Army. Pictures were a great way for me to express being overwhelmed, mood swings, anxiety, MST, PTSD, nervous breakdown and what I call the human time bomb within. There are many mediums to choose from when doing art therapy. I used canvas and a mold of my hand to express myself in art form in this area. I personally believe I did experience a nervous breakdown.
Art can help develop our self-awareness, explore emotions, internal conflict, improve many things from social skills to self-esteem. Art provides self-expression. It brings a visual aspect to our issues we are trying to show in a constructive way. Our emotions can range from minimal to high anxiety. Art therapy can take on benefits along with music therapy, crafts and drawing. Art therapy took off in a curriculum form in around 1940.
Art therapy has been beneficial for me in many ways, one way being that some art requires our full attention. Thus, we care in the here and now. Our thoughts and emotions tend to be based on past experiences, what we think could happen if……you fill in the blank. It has helped me when feeling loss of motivation, energy levels and problems concentrating. The VA uses art therapy with its veterans they are helping. I’m currently doing one of those art therapies. Sometimes it is through poetry, drawing. Each time we meet the lady who leads it explains the benefit of each method we do. Professionals have used it with patients that are experiencing dementia, schizophrenia, mood disorders and much more. It can help alleviate the negative happening in our life. Benefits can be different for each individual and depending on where we are in our need for mental health help.
Check out the Art Therapy podcast
