Lately, I find myself awake in the middle of the night – wide awake at 2:35AM – on the nose, almost nightly. While I find it is a perfect time to catch up on infomercials and snacking without any interruptions, I would rather be sleeping.
I am missing more than sleep these days, too. I am missing my keys, my glasses, my phone – any of which might actually be in my hand at the exact moment I am looking for them. I forget about meetings and birthdays. Something is just … off.
At first, I suspected these were all merely the rites of passage for those of us enmeshed in our delightful middle-aged years. After all, I watched my grandmother and then my mother struggle with many of the same symptoms. Looking back, I either rolled my eyes or laughed at them as they suffered, never imagining I would one day be there.
I am here, and I am not having it. I decided to do a little research. Sure, I could talk to my doctor; but why, when all I have to do is Google it? Once I got past convincing myself I had a brain tumor or early-onset dementia, I stumbled across an article about stress.
Stress? How dare the internet over-simplify my dire circumstances? Stress? I think I would know if I had stress, wouldn’t I? To experience symptoms of stress, there has to be some sort of mental and/or physical pressure. Scanning my current life, I just could not find any obvious source of strain. The job is challenging, but not overwhelming. I have great friends and my family is healthy.
Frustrated, I decided to take a break from self-diagnosis and check my Facebook feed. As I scrolled through a sea of unsettling posts about politics and world events, advertisements for boots and handbags Facebook somehow knew I had been shopping for earlier in the week, and viral news stories about defenseless animals under duress, a wave of panic surged through my body.
As I slammed my laptop shut, the reality hit me: I DO have stress in my life – from the overwhelming amounts of information – both true and false – that I am bombarded with every time I get online to see what my high school classmates are up to these days. Social media is stressing me out! I have been bingeing on a steady diet of negativity. By gosh, Dr. Google might be on to something. I am stressed out!
The question is, what am I going to do about it? I could try to practice the five “A’s” of stress management, which I found in a Mayo Clinic article:
- Avoid: Identify and remove stressors. This should be simple enough. I will just look for cute animal videos on YouTube and spend less time on social media.
- Alter: Change the situation by doing things like setting boundaries. (See above about cutting back on social media.)
- Adapt: Accept stressors and find ways to cope.
- Accept: Let go of negative emotions.
- Assert: Express your needs in a healthy way.
Now that I know where some of this stress is coming from, I only have myself to blame if I keep exposing myself to it. I have a choice, and I choose joy!
I should note that, ironically, April is Stress Awareness Month; so if stress is behind my late-night eating of anything sweet, including the baking chocolate binges, I guess that means I am right on trend.
