Benefits and Weaknesses of Fidget Spinners for Anxiety

Fidget spinners were a craze. Then they were quickly not a craze anymore. It may seem a little weird to be talking about a trend that is already past its prime, but here we are, because while fidget spinners may not be the cool, “in” thing anymore, you can still find them on clearance racks everywhere, and so it’s worth exploring whether or not these weird little hand gadgets still have any use.

Fidget Spinners for Anxiety: Are They a Thing?

Fidget spinners were primarily invented to help those with ADHD release some of that excess energy so they can focus more on the tasks at hand.

But these fidget spinners are not considered useful for ADHD. Some experts claim they have benefits for anxiety as well, and as an anxiety recovery site, it makes sense to discuss this possibility. Can fidget spinners help those that struggle with anxiety?

As with most things anxiety related, the answer is “yes-ish.” Yes, they can help with anxiety, but how much they help, why, and what it means for those that are struggling is up for debate.

How Fidget Spinners May Help With Anxiety

Fidget spinners are toys. Yes, they were developed for people with ADHD as a treatment, but at their core, they’re still somewhat of a toy gadget that is designed to be fun to play with. You spin it, you enjoy it, and you try to do little games or competitions with it. It’s what made it so popular in the first place.

But there may also be some anxiety benefits. These benefits may include:

• Distraction – The primary benefit of fidget spinners for those with anxiety is distraction. This is where fidget spinners are beneficial. Distraction is always useful for anxiety, because anxiety becomes more severe the more you focus on it. These spinners provide a necessarily mental and sensory distraction, and for those that like them, they are certainly something that appears to occupy the mind.
• Repetition – It is beneficial mentally to have one thing that you are comfortable doing over and over again. For many, that is something that fidget spinners provide. They feel anxiety, and they go to their handy fidget spinner in their pocket and spin it around for a while to keep themselves calm. The more you commit to one single calming activity, the more relaxing that activity becomes.
• Portable – There are other activities that can help with anxiety as well. Something as simple as walking can be great for anxiety. But what if you can’t go for a walk? What if you are in school, or work, or it’s 2am? Fidget spinners are profoundly portable, allowing you to get the benefits of distraction and repetition from essentially anywhere.
• Cheap – Finally, it’s worth talking about cost. Many things that people do to reduce their anxiety have a high price tag. From therapy to books to other self-help anxiety formulas. Fidget spinners cost next to nothing (unless you decide to buy the luxury models), which means that you don’t have that much to lose if you want to add one to your life.

For these reasons, it could be argued that there is something to fidget spinners as an anxiety recovery tool. Anyone arguing that they are useless is wrong.

How Fidget Spinners Also Are Not For Anxiety

So we’ve gone over why fidget spinners are useful for anxiety. Now, like any good opinion piece, we have to go through why they are not that great for anxiety.

The main issue about these fidget spinners is that they are simply not any more special than any other distraction. Rubik’s Cubes, spinner rings, stress balls – there are all different types of toys and gadgets out there that are likely to provide a similar distraction.

That’s not necessarily a bad thing, as this means there are more options available for those that want some type of distracting toy. But then, if they’re all interchangeable, there’s no reason to specifically say “fidget spinners are good for anxiety.” Why not just say “something to fidget with is good for anxiety” and not pretend that there is any one tool or device that is better than others?

In addition, fidget spinners carry with them the following problems:

• They can be a crutch. Anxiety doesn’t magically go away, and eliminating anxiety often comes from truly accepting your need for a treatment, and reflecting on your emotions and feelings. If you say to yourself “I have anxiety, I’m going to buy a fidget spinner and take it away” you may not be coming to terms with the self-reflection you need to truly eliminate it.
• They can be too distracting. There is a reason that they were banned in schools. Many kids avoided schoolwork in order to play with fidget spinners because their parents believed them to be beneficial. They’re nice. They’re still a fun little gadget. Ask any kid what they’d rather do between schoolwork and a toy, and they’re going to choose the toy. Adults are no different.
• They are not enough. There is no instant, go-and-purchase-it-from-the-store way to cure anxiety. If you want to get a fidget spinner to have a nice distraction for your mind when you’re anxious, you should. But you should still consider other recovery methods that have a long term impact.

That’s the key here. Yes, you can get a fidget spinner for anxiety. It may even help, and there are reasons to believe that it does have some benefits – even though those benefits are likely no different than other distraction toys and gadgets.

But if you and your child have anxiety, running to WalMart to pick up a Spider Man fidget spinner on clearance is not the answer. You still need to seek out ideas that can provide long term help, and you still need to focus your energy on solutions that have research backing and/or require a significant commitment to implement. That’s how you’ll cure anxiety. The rest is just a distraction.