I haven’t talked about it much, but I have GAD. Which stands for General Anxiety Disorder. I was diagnosed with it over 12 years ago.
I was going through a particularly rough time in my life. So many things were swirling on around me. I felt beyond stressed with every part of my life.
When I was diagnosed with GAD, the diagnosis itself helped to relieve some of my stress. Allowed me to understand why I had such severe anxiety. Up until I was diagnosed, I couldn’t understand why I couldn’t process my anxiety better.
GAD is not something that you get over, it is something you learn to live with. While it can be a daily struggle to deal with, I actually can see positives in it.
I honestly believe that my GAD has allowed me in some ways to understand Peyton better. I understand his triggers better. I have my own triggers, so I’m a lot more compassionate when he is really stressed.
Severe anxiety is no walk in the park. Sometimes it’s difficult for me to explain to people how my anxiety is affecting my day. It affects my sleep, My daily routines, as well as every other part of my life.
I’ve learned to cope with it in different ways. One of my favorite coping mechanism is to take a hot bath, I especially love taking hot lavender baths.
I’ve come to understand that when I get really stressed I need to do one of three things to my find my comfort zone:
1. Talk about my stress, exactly what/who is stressing me, so that I can verbally and mentally work through it.
2. Distract myself with something positive that I absolutely love doing. This many times will allow me to focus on something different …. the original stress actually works its way out naturally.
3. Sleep… Sleep… Sleep !! Yes, sleep helps me a lot. Remember when I said it affects my sleep? If I allow myself to become too tired, I have anxiety issues much quicker!
I’ve also learned that I have to remove toxic people from my life. I can’t allow those who just want to throw negativity at everyone all the time to be in my life on a daily basis. I take things way more to heart than people many times realize I do.
One of the reasons I love my husband so much, is he understands my GAD and works with me, when I’m going through my rough patches. He has this great expression “Shake it off” he knows EXACTLY when I need to hear this…..
He’s a strong support system for me, he plays at my strengths, works through my weaknesses and shows me unconditional love through it all! He truly is my rock.
I discussed in prior blogs, how Peyton and I are starting team Awesomism ! This project is going to be about “conquering your fear’s and finding your comfort zone.”
One of the biggest things that I’ve learned since being diagnosed with GAD, is how I need to face my anxieties and find my comfort zones! I know I’m far from perfect, and I also have learned not to let others opinions of me, to define me.
I’m a work in progress, but I’m Learning to face my fears, anxieties and stresses and find those awesome comfort zones!
Here is a link to my book…. it’s full of ideas for “comfort zones”
#Kindle edition:
…http://amazon.com/dp/B072BWWCDJ/
#Print edition:
http://amazon.com/Mom-Awesomism-
http://amazon.com/dp/1546641653/
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