Stressed Out

My body is trying to tell me something. It is showing me the telltale signs of stress overload. I learned to ignore these signs in college at my peril. Still, there isn’t much I can do about being in this particular stressful situation any more than I could avoid end-of-semester exam stress in college.

 

Headaches – this is usually the first sign my body gives me when it comes to enduring too much stress. In high school and college I suffered from migraines and it was almost a given I would have one or two prolonged headaches when the end of semester stress got to be too much for me. A few weeks ago I had a headache so bad I was in bed before Love Bug. I slept most of the night and my headache was mostly gone the next day but if I hadn’t put myself to bed with some Aleve it would have been a full-blown migraine. And I need a migraine like I need a hole in the head.

 

Poor Sleep – I don’t sleep well to begin with, due to my own sleep issues (I wake up a lot at night for no good reason) or because of kids and critters interrupting my sleep. Sadly, when I’m stressed out I seem to wake up even more often and tend to lie awake longer, trying to will myself back to sleep. Last night that happened twice. Lack of sleep makes me so grumpy and no fun to be around. It also turns me mechanical, just power through all the stuff of the day but don’t expend any extra energy.

 

Sugar Craving – I like my sweets any time and way, but I seem to crave it when I’m stressed. It’s almost like a person quitting smoking craves a cigarette when something is stressing them out. Only for me, it’s chocolate. That first taste in my mouth almost feels like it can cure the world….

 

Eye Twitching – Ugh, this little bugger! It feels like my eyelid is trying to crawl off my face and it happens repeatedly all day long. It bothers me, but I’ve watching in the mirror and it’s barely perceptible to others looking at me, which only makes it more annoying because then I have to act normal!

 

Teeth Aching – This one is new. I’m guessing I must be clenching or grinding my teeth because they just hurt Like all of them just throb for no other reason. My jaw does not hurt, but my teeth do. I might look into getting a night guard to see if that helps.

 

Forgetfulness – I’m not going to say I have the best memory on the planet, but I usually do ok. When I’m stressed I tend to forget things, or often times have a dream about something and therefore believe it happened in real like. For example, I was sure I told Primero that I had to take the dogs to the groomers (oh yeah, I forgot to write about our new foster dog, a beagle named Sherlock) Monday evening, but he asked to go see his cousin because I didn’t actually converse with him about it, I dreamt that I did. Talk about confusing!

 

So, I try to find time to relax. We didn’t really do anything this past weekend. But, until we have the meeting with the county and until things get sorted out, I’ll have no shortage of stress keeping me feeling out-of-sorts…