Household chores overwhelming you? Big picture problems? Anxious about parenting? April ie stress awareness month so tell us below!
Remember no politics
Worrying about my safety, worrying about my future, along with suffering from crippling gender dysphoria and anxiety 3:
the impact on my life from politics, work stress, overthinking past social interactions, etc.
Yep, past interactions soar into my mind too. I listen to podcasts to distract myself
ah, I have a hard time falling asleep when reading or listening to podcasts (or audiobooks). I know some people who fall asleep watching TV, and it boggles my mind 😄
But I do find reading a book for an hour before bed (or even just sitting there doing nothing) gives my more intrusive thoughts a chance to come to the surface and run in circles for a bit and wear themselves out before I actually put my head on a pillow. If I focus and stay on tasks and don’t let my mind wander much before bed I find my mind-wandering as I try to fall asleep is sometimes more active or disruptive as a result.
Yep I can’t listen to most podcasts I only listen to sleep with me. Reading is a good idea it occupies you without being too taxing
Friendship…I so struggle balancing my feelings of loneliness and desire for companionship. I look to my friends for support, but don’t want to be a burden or overwhelm them. I constantly think about how I can be the best friend I can for them and how I can support them while also being present for myself. I always end up neglecting my feelings, burning out, and sometimes even losing a friend as I crumble under my emotions. People are so hard sometimes 😢
People really are hard, they can say one thing and mean another. Loneliness is overwhelming, but our feelings about other peoples needs can take over sometimes. It’s hard when we feel like a burden. Do you know where that burden feeling comes from?
Most likely trauma and previous friendships eroding. I’m on the spectrum and know that the world I experience is very different from most people. How I communicate, express myself, and just feel overall tends to come off as exaggerated… but for me, it’s what feels normal and is fully authentic. I reach out, communicate that I’m hurting, and could use support, but it’s almost always “I’ll try to make time.” I always ask to spend time doing things we do regularly - playing games online, chatting, shopping etc… but the moment I’m asking for that time to help me through something, it’s just not there anymore. I’ve lost a few friendships that I really valued when I was struggling like this - it’s hard to not feel like it’s a ‘me’ problem.
I get that, part of being neurodiverse is being a bit different. It’s a fantastic asset because it means we bring things to the table other people don’t but boy, it can make us an outsider! You’re not fake, you’re your own authentic self, but it’s hard to get people to see that. When we lose people and we’re the common demoninator it’s natural to see ourselves as the problem. I get it mate.
I’m going through some shit emotionally right now, mainly feeling like I don’t do enough/am not good enough. So my thoughts revolve around that. Hopefully it will pass soon.
Feeling we aren’t good enough is really tough, it’s a horrible feeling and it effects how we interpret the world. It can be consuming and really be hard to keep going sometimes. I’m sorry things are hard, do you want to talk about it?
Thank you very much. You are totally right, it does affect how we interpret the world. I had a looong conversation about it with my husband yesterday, and it made me feel much better. So I think I’m on the upward trajectory now.
Icky, I love your posts on the natural world. I always learn something, and they always inspire a lot of activity from people – so I know I’m not the only one.
Friggin hot flashes
Also sometimes I get ideas for potentially solving random projects I have going or are toying with starting. I should get up and write that stuff down so I can clear my head to go back to sleep, but rather I tend to attempt to capitalize on the inspiration and keep fiddling with the idea until I forget what it was that was the original spark.