Toys to relieve depression

No toys can "cure" depression. All toys on the market labeled as "depression cure artifacts" are all marketing gimmicks. However, there are indeed many clinically proven emotion-regulation toys that can be used as auxiliary tools in addition to formal treatment to help patients with depression relieve symptoms such as anxiety, dissociation, and meaninglessness. The effects vary from person to person, and they absolutely cannot replace drugs and professional psychological intervention.

When I was volunteering in the adolescent ward of the city's Jingwei Center two years ago, the transparent cabinet at the nurse's station was always filled with half a cabinet of strange gadgets: light blue silicone pressing blocks with bumps, slow-rebound bread that wouldn't bounce back after a long time of pinching, metal fingertip spinners that could be twisted at will, and a stack of thick scraping papers. There is a 17-year-old girl with severe depression. Every time she has a dissociative episode, her whole body seems to be drained of her soul. If she doesn't respond to her name for a long time, the nurse will put the silicone block in her hand. Her fingertips repeatedly rubbed those bumps, pressing the small button until it clicked. After about ten minutes, she slowly blinked and said "I'm back." Later, she told me that at that time, her mind was full of messy noises and she couldn't grasp anything. Only the soft lump in her hand was real. "It was 10,000 times more effective than my mother sitting next to me crying and saying, 'Don't think nonsense.'"

The principle of this type of toy is actually not complicated. It is essentially an extension of the "grounding technology" in psychotherapy - using instant low-stimulation feedback from touch, hearing, and vision to help patients bring their attention back to the present moment. There is no need to use their brains or force themselves to "get better quickly." There are no KPIs when playing, and no one will blame you if you make a mistake. Cognitive-behavioral counselors are particularly fond of recommending such gadgets. They believe that for patients who are unable to concentrate on mindfulness exercises during attacks, a small toy that can be played with in your hand has a much lower threshold than breathing exercises.

Of course there are always many voices of opposition. I have a friend who works as a psychiatrist in a tertiary hospital. Every time he sees a toy on an e-commerce platform that is labeled "Depression Essentials" and "Relieve Depression in 7 Days," he can't help complaining. He said that he has encountered several patients who bought such Internet celebrity toys because they were useless. Instead, they fell into deeper self-blame and felt, "I can't even save myself with a toy. I'm really useless." A 2022 tracking study by the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry also showed that nearly 32% of patients have too high expectations for this type of adjustment toys. When expectations are not met, they will increase their emotional internal friction. Some teenage patients even develop self-denial because they "cannot play with stress-relieving toys."

Not all useful toys have to be specialized "decompression models." I once had a visitor who worked as an Internet designer. He had been severely depressed for three years. He had a drawer full of Lego pieces in his desk drawer. When he didn’t want to go home or talk to anyone after work, he would sit at his workstation and build them without looking at the drawings. If he wanted to build a monster, he would build a monster. He said that during those twenty minutes, he didn’t have to think about whether he had met his needs or whether he was happy on time today. He just stared at the pellets in his hand and pressed them in. “That was the only time in the day when I didn’t have to force myself to be ‘normal’.” This kind of toy that favors free creation just follows the logic of expressive art therapy. Psychodynamic counselors often recommend this type of tool. You don’t need to express the emotions that you can’t express. You can make plasticine or build strange gadgets, which are the outlet of your emotions.

In fact, in the final analysis, there are no "toys for relieving depression". If you like to pinch bubble wrap, then bubble wrap is the best adjustment tool for you; if turning a pen can make you calm down, then turning a pen will do the same. There is no need to go out of your way to buy hundreds of yuan of Internet celebrity models, and don’t listen to the “healing effects” boasted by the merchants. It is the little crutch you can hold in your hand when you are sick, supporting you through the uncomfortable pain of ten minutes or half an hour. But if you really want to move forward, you still have to take good medicine and see a consultant for regular follow-up visits. No one can do it for you.

Oh, by the way, the last time I met the 17-year-old girl in the ward who came back for a follow-up consultation, she still had the light blue silicone block that had been used for almost two years stuffed in the side pocket of her schoolbag. She said, "It is rarely used now, but it is safe to carry it. If you really feel uncomfortable, just pinch it twice and hold it up and it will be over." You see, the useful thing is never the toy itself, but the thought that you are willing to hold it and hold it on for a while.