I appreciate that it is hardwired into the human creature. We need it for survival. It warns us of potential danger and primes us to fight or to flee. I get it. When it works properly, triggered at appropriate times, it's great. But then there are the other times....
Getting a lump in your throat because you need to walk down the street to get the mail sucks. It makes no sense. The walk is only a single block and the neighborhood is safe so going to the mailbox should be a nice, leisurely stroll. Instead, I'm driven to keep a close eye on everything around me and my entire body is pressuring me to hurry up and get back home, back to safety. Logically, I know this is unreasonable, unwarranted, and I feel a little embarrassed but I can't help myself. I want to return to a state of comfort.
In the not-so-distant past I thought I was having heart problems and went to a cardiologist about it. A series of tests revealed my heart was just fine. If the problem wasn't with my heart, then what the heck was going on? I'm a little dense I guess because it took me a while to decide I was having stress related anxiety problems. Maybe I was just in denial. The stress in my life at that point was unreal. At times I could barely do my job because my hands would go numb and my fingers would curl up. Other times I could feel and hear the blood whooshing through my ears with each beat of my heart.
I was light-headed and got dizzy if I stood up too fast but I chalked that up to poor eating habits. Skipping lunch was the norm. My workload was just too heavy to stop for something like lunch. It was a bad idea and I knew it but I did it anyway. I didn't have a choice. Well, technically I did and as far as my employer was concerned they were not pressuring me - I was deciding to work straight through my lunch time. It was terrible. In hindsight it was just flat stupid.
The real doozy was my hair falling out. At first it seemed normal - like the little bit of hair that gets tangled in your brush over time. After a while it was a quite different. Rinsing the shampoo and conditioner out of my hair left hair tangled in among my fingers. It just slid right out of the rest of my hair. I thought for sure I would go bald.
I am really glad that many of the symptoms I experienced then are not happening now. I still have anxiety issues on a daily basis but I'm keeping my hair.
In the not-so-distant past I thought I was having heart problems and went to a cardiologist about it. A series of tests revealed my heart was just fine. If the problem wasn't with my heart, then what the heck was going on? I'm a little dense I guess because it took me a while to decide I was having stress related anxiety problems. Maybe I was just in denial. The stress in my life at that point was unreal. At times I could barely do my job because my hands would go numb and my fingers would curl up. Other times I could feel and hear the blood whooshing through my ears with each beat of my heart.
I was light-headed and got dizzy if I stood up too fast but I chalked that up to poor eating habits. Skipping lunch was the norm. My workload was just too heavy to stop for something like lunch. It was a bad idea and I knew it but I did it anyway. I didn't have a choice. Well, technically I did and as far as my employer was concerned they were not pressuring me - I was deciding to work straight through my lunch time. It was terrible. In hindsight it was just flat stupid.
The real doozy was my hair falling out. At first it seemed normal - like the little bit of hair that gets tangled in your brush over time. After a while it was a quite different. Rinsing the shampoo and conditioner out of my hair left hair tangled in among my fingers. It just slid right out of the rest of my hair. I thought for sure I would go bald.
I am really glad that many of the symptoms I experienced then are not happening now. I still have anxiety issues on a daily basis but I'm keeping my hair.
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