The Crane Project

One key part of coping and dealing with trichotillomania (hair pulling disorder) is keeping your hands busy. Now there are many ways to do that (i.e. spinner rings, tangles, silly putty, play doh, knitting, etc.), one coping skill I discovered over the summer is making paper cranes. Any origami would probably do, but I chose to make only paper cranes, for they are simple, pretty, and don't require much intellectual effort to create. I would sit for hours on the couch or at the table, just folding and folding paper cranes. Since you need both hands to make the cranes, your physical body is dedicated to folding the origami. Both hands are completely occupied, and thus you can't pull unless you stop folding. This way of coping may not work for everyone, but it helped me a great deal, and significantly reduced my pulling. Before I knew it, I had made over seven hundred cranes, and I had no idea what to do with them all. So I came up with this. 

Using clear fishing wire, a needle, and some beads, I stringed up my cranes into these garland-like strands. I had different sizes of cranes, so I alternated and made half of them large and long, and the other half small and short. The process of stringing these together was not easy, especially since I'm not too gifted in the DIY department. It literally took blood sweat and tears (blood because I kept poking myself with the needle, sweat because I was moving around so much, and tears because half way through most of my strands of cranes that I had spent hours making had fallen apart because I didn't secure them properly). But despite the struggles and strife, I'm really pleased with the product. The colors of the cranes are bold and bright, and they really stand out against my dark blue walls. I'm in love with the way they look, and I'm happy that I took the time to create these wall ornaments. 

There are definitely other things that you can do with your cranes if you have extra or if you're not into this sort of project. Cranes look beautiful in a clear glass vase, or you can attach a paper clip or hook to them and create a christmas ornament. I like how you can really use your imagination when it comes to these cranes--there's so many options that you can think up when it comes to this. 

Do you have any other ideas of what to do with paper cranes? Let me know in the comments!