SunflowerGaming : I guess I can be as good a person as anyone else when I say writing can be very therapeutic. I know from personal experience as I myself have my own problems coping with stress and frankly one of my problems is I can’t let emotion out even when I feel like I need to break down and let it out. This means I often keep things for the most part bottled up where it stirs in me and there’s one of two ways I vent it out. One is obviously my writing. It’s helpful for me even though it can also be a source of stress at times particularly when you are forced to either defend your material to someone who may take issue with it or, when you have to defend your rights to things that appear in your material. Unfortunately for me I have been in situations where I have had to do both in recent years.

Although I feel I am in the right it has been a major source of stress on me and even emotional. To be honest there are days where I literally wish I could go into a cave. For now one thing I am doing is taking a bit of a step back from my writing so I can focus my energy on trying to finish school but I won’t lie when I say that it’s not easy and that the stresses that I have been dealing with are in the back of my mind.

Rather than allowing myself to get stressed out which is very difficult not to do considering that there isn’t a moment where it’s not on my mind along with a lot of other things I am relying on faith to get me through things. I tell myself often that even though I have been through a lot and even though things have been very rough that I’ve been through worse and, there is probably someone out there who has it worse than I do.

One thing that I hope for is to be able to have a period of calm one day where I don’t have to worry about stress so much. I may not be able to rest easy but I would appreciate a nice long period of calm where I don’t have to worry about much.

Yeah, stress overwhelms me more times than I am willing to count. I try to do whatever I can to distract my thoughts, but sometimes, nothing works. Some of these suggestions are really helpful. I'm hoping they'll work. Sometimes my thoughts just over take anything else in me. If that makes any kind of sense.

SunflowerGaming : I can relate to that as I am writing this it is nearly four in the morning. I too suffer from chronic mind overload and often the mind takes over when stress is the overriding factor. It’s one reason why even on nights when I’m not up writing that I find it difficult to sleep and difficult to relax as like I said before my mind is always on something and usually there is something that is stressing that is on my mind. It is frustrating but that is how it is. As far as stress you’re right about that one. Stress is a silent killer. I have been stressed so badly at times where it has made me sick.

I got sick seven years ago with high blood pressure and although some I was friends with at the time didn’t think it was serious, believe me it was. I basically refused to go to a doctor (Doesn’t like nor trust doctors very much.) for six months. During that time my ability to adequately function gradually became a problem. I experienced rushes in my arms, feeling numb etc. I assume the numbness was due to low circulation and such it’s a problem I still have to a degree from time to time.

When I was finally convinced to go to a doctor the first number on my BP reading was 167. I can’t really remember what the low number was but that high number is burned in my mind. Although I eventually recovered I still deal with effects from it. It also didn’t help that one of the reasons why I avoided (and still do to a degree) going to the doctor was because I had this dream where I was in an exam room waiting for the doctor to come in and once the doctor came in he proceeded to tell me that I had everything one could possibly think of wrong with me. So I also had to deal with anxiety as well. This is also something I still deal with from time to time.

More recently, over a year ago I went through about three weeks where I simply could not function and was overrun with stress. I had abdominal pain, migraines and it just really wasn’t a pleasant time at all. Some of the things that were going on at the time that more or less I think made my body shut down was my dad had lost his job, my mom had been (and still does) dealing with injuries suffered in a car accident years ago. My dog was in the late stages of his life and the thought of losing him was frankly too much for me. I was also dealing with a situation related to my writing that was another source of stress. All of the above got me to a point where I didn’t have an appetite and thus wasn’t eating or sleeping. I was again convinced to go to the doctor and I did something I thought I would never find myself doing, I was up front with him and told him what was going on. He asked me if I was depressed and my response was is depressed feeling as if the world is coming down on you and no matter what you try it’s hopeless?

He asked if I wanted to be put on medication but I declined. As far as my physical symptoms he said that it was possible that I had an ulcer and gave me prilosec. I still take prilosec as needed and it helps especially with heartburn and such.
Believe me stress doesn’t discriminate and for me it’s an everyday battle it seems. I just try to roll with the punches as best as I can and just keep going even though I have had much adversity and there are times where I do want to throw up my hands so to speak. It’s not easy.

There has been a quote that for the life of me I can’t remember who said it but I think it is a good quote that I try to remember in adverse circumstances. “The harder the battle, the greater the struggle, the sweeter the victory…” It’s something that I have been trying to remind myself of, especially since I’m trying again to finish school. It’s already been harder than I anticipated and I’m still not sure if I’m going to stay in the course I’m in or try again for a GED. I am trying to re-educate myself though and am praying that it will be enough to get me through.

I really do think that the quote is great, I just wish I remembered where I first heard it…

Hang in there.

Hm not too sure how to answer this. I laugh at tons and never really lose control of my emotions. depends on the day though.

bvd1022 : It seems you and I have a lot more in common than I realized. I struggle with stress on a daily basis as well, only I have to be on medication, or I can't function. I guess it's different for everyone. I'm sorry you have so much you have to deal with. I think I would go nuts if I had that much on my shoulders. I commend you, you seem to be a very strong person.

Anxiety and stress definitely don't go well together. Sometimes I feel as if everything is going to cave in, but I try my best to get through it. I used to write a lot, but I sort of got out of the habit of doing so. I have been thinking about getting back into it. I've even posted some stories here on Vizzed. I am really out of practice, but I think the suggestions to write will definitely be a good way for me to let out my emotions and not be too emotional when doing so.

SunflowerGaming : Thank you… I don’t know if I’m strong necessarily. There have been times like I said where I have wanted to throw up my hands. There have also been times where I’ve just wanted to break down. For whatever reason I haven’t been able to break down. The stress sometimes can be unbearable that is probably one reason why I sleep in spots as opposed to adequate restful sleep.

You are not the only one who feels that everything is coming down on them. I’ve been there and am still there. I try as best as I can to get through everything but there have been times where I’ve talked to people about my problems but I have avoided going to a psychiatrist because I don’t think it would be helpful. If I do everything I can to avoid doctors then why would I go see a psychiatrist?

One thing I am grateful for though is when I got sick seven years ago it made me straighten up and even though it took time and didn’t happen overnight it did put things in perspective for me and gradually I woke up. I will admit I still have my flaws and am not perfect by any means but I do think I matured a lot since then. It was a life changing experience to a degree. The one thing I don’t do is judge people. My philosophy is how can I possibly judge anyone after being through what I have? For me to pass judgment on anyone would make me a hypocrite and I don’t want to be a hypocrite.

I do want to be able to redeem myself from what I was when I was a teen and to be able to move on and put it all behind me though. This in itself can be stressful because of often thinking of regrets and thinking of things you can’t really remember but I hope I will be able to feel like I’ve achieved redemption one day. One of the ways I hope to accomplish that is by not repeating the same mistakes I did when I was younger, more or less saying look I was a screwed up kid to whomever may ask me about that time in my life and, by offering advice and trying to help people even if it’s as simple as listening. I have a few friends that call me an old soul. I didn’t really understand that at first but now I do and it fits. I just wish it didn’t take a health scare in my early 20’s to realize the errors of my ways.

If you need any advice on writing please let me know.

I suggest tapping your fingers together.
It relieves stress for me.. And helps me control my emotions.

I'm actually a really hot headed person. So this helps me. Or taking deep breaths.
I hope this may help you out.