Dealing with stress

[Happy]

@Maximus I can't imagine how horrible that would be to have your sanctuary taken from you. I hope you can get it back and someone will listen to what it is legitimately doing to you.

@ross I read that poem at my father's service. So true. My dad had experienced Alzheimer's with his own mother so he knew what his family was facing. Thankfully he had a very short window of time where he knew what he had. I'm forever thankful that I took that time to get past his gruff exterior to really talk to him about his disease, what lay ahead of us and to ensure him that we were facing it together.
In the end, regardless of the disease or root cause, sometimes that's the best you can do.

[Killerbunny]

Ross made me get the tissue box again.

[Flat Rock Farm]

Umm good ole stress, what can I say.....I get it at work BIG time and at home. For me the best stress reliever is to get a day away by myself usually down to Port Dover or anywhere along the lake that's not more than an hour drive. Get a coffee or lunch and just sit out staring at the water, the boats and the world go by. Just need to turn the head off for awhile. Home used to be a place I would like to spend my quiet time but all I ever see around me is non-stop work, so I have to get away from that too.

[goatgal35]

As corny as it sounds, learning to accept the things I can not change has helped me. I've had to get pretty mature (old) to figure this out. When life tosses me a steaming pile of I need to get back up, dust myself off, fix things the best that I can and let the rest go. I try to Pollyanna everything as much as possible as well. No matter how crappy things are you can always find some good in your life. Cherish loved ones, human and critter. I mean how can I be stressed? I spent Monday afternoon picking dandelions in mid November with a two year old, while my dogs, cats, ponies, chickens, turkeys, ducks, geese, and goats followed us along.
When none of that works a car ride by myself with some good old Metallica or Pantera blasting away while I sing my fool head off is good for the soul.

[Killerbunny]

Oh I love Metallica too but it has to be LOUD!!!! Funny thing is I think a lot of classical music too like Wagner is kinds like heavy rock and must be played loud!

[thegawd]

the new Metallica, Hardwired to self destruct is such an awesome song!!! there is no good censored version to post... I looked.

[ross]

I guess I'm lucky , never felt stress of any kind .

[kenya]

Horses, chickens, a good book to read these are my stress reliefs.

[windwalkingwolf]

What I do to de-stress depends on many things, what's causing the stress and what my reaction to it is, time of year, etc. And has evolved over the years and decades as health changed, careers changed, living situation, whatever. For aggression, it's tough to beat splitting wood. If I need to clear my head and relax, I go pull weeds or spend a couple hours with the birds. Every once in a while I'll go for a long drive with the music cranked and belt along at the top of my lungs...but if grieving or depressed, music will make it worse for me.
Once upon a time when my kids were very small, I had a rather crippling depressive period in my life. I spent an entire year drunk, drinking from the time I woke up until I fell into bed at night. It sounds weird, but at the time, booze saved my life... without it I'm fairly certain I would have killed myself or someone else. When I was able to get ahold of myself enough to realize I was potentially destroying my family's lives, I talked to my doctor...hardest thing I've probably ever done, because I knew he couldn't possibly understand. And he didn't, but he got me the help I needed, which for me was nothing more than 3 months worth of low dose Zoloft. It literally felt like a mountain had been lifted off my shoulders. I went to therapy too, but she wanted me to talk about things that I just couldn't. Still can't. Some wounds will probably always be open and picking at them only serves to make them fester. But anyways, I replaced the beer with birds and the rest is history lol.
The 'bible' of mental Illness basically defines it as something that cannot be seen or measured with diagnostic equipment--for example, a change in behaviour or personality with no structural changes on an MRI (e.g brain abscess, Chiari malformation) or unusual changes in blood chemistry (e.g. vitamin B deficiency, low thyroid hormones) to account for the problem. But as researchers learn more about the brain and advances in diagnostic technology are made, many conditions once thought to be psychological disorders are now known to have a physical basis, and often a genetic one. It's easy to dismiss someone having a bad day ( or a bad decade lol) by saying it's all in their head, with the implications that they can somehow get over it just by thinking positively, or all they need is Jesus, or some such other . But the pain from physical, measurable illnesses and injuries is technically all in our heads too, and no amount of faking a smile will make the pain of arthritis, or sunburn or whatever go away. No amount of prayer will cure a sociopath, and pulling themselves up by the bootstraps won't ease the fear of a child raised by a bipolar parent, that they might develop is as well. Positive thinking won't help the depressive that can barely think.
For me, the realization that mental and physical illness are the same thing, as well as stress and anxiety coping methods, helps tremendously. I am not weak, or crazy, it's not just my imagination and it never was. Everybody has psychological issues, whether it be anger management difficulties, arachnophobia, brainwashing, addictive personality, PTSD, autism spectrum disorder (last I checked, autism was still considered a mental illness). We are electrochemical beings, and everything we do, touch, feel, see, smell, experience, remember and taste, is quite literally all in our heads. The mechanism that makes us feel pain if we drop a brick on a toe is the same that makes us feel pride in an accomplishment, and is the same that makes a person feel an exaggerated or inappropriate emotion. There is no difference between the person screaming OW! and hopping around, and the person who picks up the brick and throws it through a window (or someone's head), except for a missing or misdirected bit of protein in the brain. I think once most people can wrap their heads around that concept, the stigma and taboos will disappear.

[baronrenfrew]

:Shark:

Wow, it seems from time to time I post a simple query that becomes something much deeper.

And that those of us who frequent this site have the courage to tell their story, and know that the listeners will not judge and will offer understanding and encouragement.
And the patience to let us rant.

If only the greater world was like this.