Oh @Gem17, I hear you 🙁 having a hard time sure suppresses our creativity.
I like needlework and colouring too but tend to be too aggitated and need more active or standing activities when overwhelmed like you describe. Watching TV & sleeping can be an escape (shelving it 'till later), and sometimes we need that for 2, 3 days... I often default there, but it's not really 'living' much i'm thinking. So I really struggle there with you in this. But for you at the moment, survival mode is ok while your supports are unavailable..

You asked "WHAT THINGS DO I DO TO DISTRACT / PROCESS STRONG EMOTIONS?"
I think maybe there's two aspects to that question, distraction and processing.
DISTRACTION - I have to ask, is it the emotion you want to distract from or the thoughts that trigger the emotion?
PROCESSING 🤔 well, in my experience we need help with this one a lot, but as a rule I've learnt we have to FEEL the emotion to process it 😢 ("go through it to get through it" so to speak), even if in small doses (which I do with mindfulness meditation tapes). Humans hate pain (as a rule) and emotional pain is so intense. I usually run from pain too, avoid, distract from it all the time, and I've figured out why.

Emotions have a habit of bumping into (reminding us) of similar past feelings & their memory, even way back to childhood, and nearly always negative 😟which can trigger us. I hate it. One emotion becomes a mountain - way too much to process at once, overwhelming 😟 and the worst time to try 'process' if we haven't practiced techniques because the brain switches off, goes into fight / flight / freeze / survival mode. Those times we have to manage the NOW, and be gentle with ourselves, even if we do have to escape a little into guilt free tv etc. Other ways I cope at thesevtimes are:
- my Coping Box (containing a lot of the x5 senses grounding tools)
- my healthy distraction list stuck to the bedroom wall (cause brain can't think of them) which says things like: go for a walk, brush the dog, fo gardening, scrub the shower... I tend to need more active mindfulness distractions than sitting when triggered strong emotions.

There's more information on these techniques and discussions here in the forums, if you search the words and coping skills.
It will be good to talk about what youve learned with your psychologist when she gets back from leave, so write it down. Holding your own 'till then is hard work, so do be kind to yourself. 💐

I have a friend visiting from interstate for lunch today, so Betta get ready for that.
🏃🏃😯🏃🏃
@HenryX, catch up later 💙