Blythe and Therapy

When I was a child I would spend hours playing with my Barbie and American Girl dolls. And I mean hours. Not only would they go on a million different adventures, courtesy my over-active imagination, but  I could sit and change their clothes and style their hair for hours on end. I recently rediscovered my American Girl doll wardrobe, which is in a small suitcase, and I had a lot of clothes for them. When I was 8, I wasn't making too many clothes and I surely wasn't going around taking pictures of them in different places. Usually I dressed them for an occasion. Sure I played with them, and they acted out things, but one of my favorite things to do was dress and redress and redress them. Maybe there was some solace I found in that, some sort of calming effect. Because now that I collect Blythes, I find that same aspect is one thing that really draws me to them and has an incredibly calming affect. Everyone has hobbies, sure; normal ones, such as yoga, or not-so-common ones, such as taxidermy, (hopefully Blythe falling into the former category, but adults playing with dolls can have a Rule 34 connotation) and we usually laugh it off as being "cheaper than therapy" but in a way, it really is. Sure, an $100+ doll isn't really as cheap as a session of therapy, depending on where you go, but each session, medicine, books, etc can add up and it can be. For example, I was quite stressed a few hours ago and was on Flickr and BlytheKingdom and was inspired to change my girls as they'd been abandoned in the stress of finals. By the time all 4 of them had been changed and their hair restyled, I felt incredibly calm. I have problems with the obsessive part of OCD where I can obsessive over a single thought like a song that gets stuck in your head, but during the whole process my mind was blank, and free, like I was in this trance and just naturally playing with pieces of plastic and cloth. It may sound silly to someone who hasn't been battling depression and/or anxiety, or someone who doesn't collect Blythe or have any sort of collection/hobby for that matter, but if at 1.30 AM I'm able to calm myself down with a doll and prevent a full blown panic attack, or turning to something worse, then I think that's all right. If I'm 24 and play with dolls, then fine, I play with dolls. It keeps me sane. And if my dolls are what keep me sane, and able to get through the day, then I see no problem with that. It's just such an interesting observation, as I have noticed the calming affect they have had on me before. Good thing I've found them, then.

Although, this means I'll justify buying plenty of Blythe dresses and such as being "therapeutic."