adult coloring books yeah or nah?

[NeuroBeautiful]

My personal opinion is that children doing coloring books can be problematic.

But I also read articles that for adults it can be beneficial because it lowers stress and teaches you mindfulness and is not cognitively demanding.

Anyone tried adult coloring books?
My college would have the wellness office for stress free time before finals. They had play dough and coloring pages and snacks and messages. They stopped doing it probably because of budget cuts. Now they have a really strained, more stressful than reducing stress version of puppy therapy.
I've always enjoyed their stress-free zone. I was sad when they took it out and discontinued doing it

The other thing is that coloring books are marketed as "art therapy" and that's simply not true. This is not a form of professional help. So the name is misleading. However, non-art therapy mental health professionals like school counselors and talk therapists might implement therapeutic art activities and also perpetuate the misleading name, calling what they do as art therapy.
So I have to keep in mind that this isn't a form of therapy. This is supposed to just be a cool fun thing to do.
So as someone who is looking for hobbies to get into. I know what I like and don't like and art-making is one of the things I like to do.
I can make my own art from scratch but I am thinking of using coloring books as maybe a warm up exercise?
Is that counter-intuitive.
Wondering what your experiences are. How were you feeling before, and how did you feel after?
What was your motivation to try coloring? De-stress, relax, do creative work,just for fun, or something else?

Thank you

[Kate*]

Honestly, I think you're putting too much thought into it. It's meant to be fun and relaxing. I don't see the harm in trying it if you want; and anything to get a child away from a device I say is worth it. No, it's not "art therapy", but it can be therapeutic and some professionals may suggest it to someone to try, but every professional has to be extremely careful when describing what they do and don't do. Most non-art professional therapists who do this would not call it art therapy. There are a lot of twisted truths and blatant lies in the marketing of pretty much everything anyway.

I love the "stained glass" ones which are basically translucent pages, but I use markers and end up making a mess. I'm not sure what else would work on them though. It's actually a lot cheaper to get the ones for kids. The industry has realized they can make money on it and have taken advantage.

[WhisperingSilence]

i own like over 100 of these 'art therapy' colouring books. i see them as colouring books. with more intricate detialed pictures than some of the childrens colouring books, i love them and could colour for ages if allowed.... there is benefits to it like you can forget the world for abit and zone out and not to have think about any stresses etc so in that sense i can see why they call it 'art therapy' its self help.. or a hobbie but either way if it reduces stress its not a bad thing.

[Lionheart]

Hey
Coloring books are pretty cool!
I used to do them a lot last year and have recently gotten back into them.
I only do them when I'm stressed and starting to over think cause while coloring I usually don't think about anything and when I stop I'm still stressed but a lot calmer, and as long as I'm calm I usually can handle stuff. So my motivation behind doing them is probably preventing panic and stuff
Originaly I got into them because of therapy. There we had to paint and stuff and since I realiced it actually helped I bought some coloring books since its easier than doing something from scratch (I'm not much of an artist).
So I'd say, try them! Thei re amazing!

[NeuroBeautiful]

Thank you all of you for your input. I'm still hesitating (probably a sign that I need to relax) but yeah... I appreciate it

[hocus pocus]

I have a lot of coloring books. I don't do it as often as I should, but I want to slowly get back into it. Reason for this is that sometimes I get so anxious I can't sit still to color. Sometimes I get stressed out about my color scheme. Leave it to me to take something relaxing and make it stressful.

I've heard of some people doing it at night to calm down before they fall asleep, in effort to prevent nightmares. They're a good distraction because you can kind of get lost in them.

I think you should give it a try. If you just want to dip your toes in, you can go to the dollar store and get a book or two there. Those books are short and small so you can get an idea of whether or not you like it. You could also try word searches, Sudoku, or crossword puzzles if that will help.

[MsNobleEleanor]

I used colouring as many ways, one of which I coloured during DBT or in groups, it helped me stay focused and not drift into really bad feelings. I haven't coloured much lately but I will soon.

I use other form of art like sewing. I find it helps to be focused but I can't do for long periods of time.

I do have play-doh where something my hands do, keep my mind busy. To me its about coping and managing emotions, something to do if nothing else has worked.

If your unsure if you want to do the colouring you can always do something else, maybe drawing, doing crafts, beading, sewing, etc., which can also be helpful. Start small and see how you feel about but if you don't like it you can always try something different.

I have a number of coloring books and I enjoy it. I don't do it often because, like Cassado, I get weird about color scheme and then it becomes more of a chore. However, I do find it relaxing when I am not worrying about color scheme.

I get them pretty cheap off of amazon but if you are unsure about taking it up I second looking at the dollar store. You can't beat paying a dollar for something.

[virtualprincess]

i really like coloring book, i even install some adult coloring book apps on my smartphone and complete them when i have spare time. it helps me pay attention to detail.

[.Brittany.]

I find that the adult colouring books tend to stress me out more than I was when I started. So I started to do puzzles, children's colouring books, and recently I got a new pen pal .

[Always *]

I like the adult colouring books. I have 3. I need to use them more. I've been thinking about painting some of mine.

It's obviously not "real" art therapy because I think that art therapy needs to be a guided thing that'll address a persons trauma/ experiences/ etc. But I do think it is a good self-care thing that can be very therapeutic to the right person who's likes it.

[NeuroBeautiful]

Thank you everyone. I saw the local store have some but Im also gonna look into what was suggested like Sudoku and word searches etc (crosswords frustrate me so much though!) Right now money is right but maybe in a month when things have settled I will look into the ideas as well as revisit the adult coloring book idea xD

I'm sorry for the late reply. But I think adult coloring books can be stressful rather than helpful. There's no set guide or rules to them, and I need that when I do an activity. I know it may seem silly and childish, but I feel like there's a right and wrong to everything, and that includes something creative like coloring. Plus, all the design are so intricate, and that's really hard for me to work with. I've tried doing adult coloring books and haven't been very successful.

Just my two cents.

[obelus]

Also, since you said you were interested, there's a ton of free things online you could utilize until you are able to buy something. There's plenty of free coloring pages and puzzles that you could print out! Plus free apps that you could download if you have a capable device. You could also consider some free games. I know sometimes I revert to my inner 10 year old and play some old Disney games.

Just explore some things to see what works best for you. I know personally I prefer miniature adult coloring books over full sized ones because they are less stressful, but it might be different for you. Try some things online. I could probably help find some things if you have any trouble searching. Have fun with it and use it as an escape.

[Kintsukuroi.]

I know I don't mind using them but I have to be in the right mood (i.e. not stressed or anything and it has to be purely for fun because otherwise I get more stressed if I mess up )

I think it really depends, I know some people who love them and others who don't like them. My one sister thinks they work amazing and my other sister can't do it because she gets agitated over the colours and if she messes up. I think they're worth a try but you can always print some out and try them before spending the money. Another place to look is your local library. I know the one I volunteer at has them and people are able to pay 10 cents and photo copy the pages they want. There also might be adult colouring book nights/events/clubs which you could check out (they're free where I am) and the supplies are provided (including the colouring pages!)

I know not all libraries do it, but one here (not the one I volunteer at but a different one) has this thing where you can borrow the colouring book four two weeks, colour 1-2 pages of it and sign it before returning it and borrowing a different one.