I'm back! I haven't been very committed to writing here lately, and for that, I apologize. Part of it is adjusting to my new schedule at work, part of it is that the dude and I have both been sick and thus my energy has been lacking, and part of it is that, to be honest, … Continue reading Rewards for the faithful
Life with Anxiety
The Five Love Languages
I just finished reading The Five Love Languages by Gary Chapman, which was recommended to me by my spirit twin. A few years ago, I would have resisted something so seemingly self-helpy. I didn't need that. I was doing fine. But you know what? Self help shit is kind of awesome. Granted, there is some weirdness out … Continue reading The Five Love Languages
The Daring Way
A couple of days ago I got a package from my mom, who had packed up some of my grandma's cross stitch thread and sent it to me. Sure enough, when I opened it, I found embroidery floss tucked into little protectors in plastic sleeves that I could put in a binder, as expected. What I … Continue reading The Daring Way
Rationalizing inertia
As I've written about before, when it's been a while since an intense anxiety day I tend to get complacent. I forget that I'm not experiencing much anxiety because I'm working on managing it. I forget that I need to take an active role in preempting it. I begin to tell myself that it's ok … Continue reading Rationalizing inertia
The stigma of mental health
One of the things that I struggle with a lot is the stigma around mental illness. It is deep-seated, pervasive, and embedded in our society and our language in a thousand different tiny ways. For instance, we say all the time that somethings is "crazy" or "nuts". Or we call people "spaz". Or says we're depressed … Continue reading The stigma of mental health
Identifying with anxiety
Ok. It's official. I'm in love with Headspace. There are a bunch of really wonderful things about it, but there are two that really help me address the two biggest issues I have with anxiety. First, Andy, the founder of Headspace, is clearly a conscientious person who understands how anxiety works. In the anxiety pack of … Continue reading Identifying with anxiety
Anxiety is a partnership
Lately I've been doing the Anxiety pack of meditations on Headspace, and something has clicked for me. It's not about making the anxiety feel consistent: a panic attack always feels this way, small anxieties always feel that way. Because it's not going to be like that. While there are commonalities - tingling and expansion in … Continue reading Anxiety is a partnership
Here’s to 2016
May it be less anxious than 2015.
When you least expect it
One of the things I'm slowly learning about my anxiety is what triggers it and when to expect it. For instance, there's usually some anxiety around some kind of confrontation or confession, and there is always some around traveling. My therapist also thinks (and I agree) that I'm more susceptible when I haven't been doing … Continue reading When you least expect it
Anxiety check list
One of the things I'm really struggling with is remembering - while I'm in the middle of a storm of anxiety - that I actually know a lot of things that I should be doing. It's so hard to move past that initial self-talk of this is horrible I hate this this needs to stop and … Continue reading Anxiety check list
it's only fear 