lofwyr
28-10-21, 16:05
Hey guys.
My dad recently passed away at 82, just a couple weeks ago. My mom and I are devastated, naturally, even though it wasn't a total surprise.
Now, in the past couple days my mom, who is 81, has developed a painful swelling on the side of her neck. It could be a million things, and I am not googling, nor do I plan to, but the worry after losing my father, the catastrophizing is right there, and I am having a hell of a time subduing it. She has no other real symptoms.
I have coping tools, but they seem weak and pathetic in the face of grief and stress we both feel. I worry about my mom succumbing to the grief she feels. I know this swelling could even be an immune response from the anxiety and depression she is feeling. The only thing worse than having lost my father would be to lose my mother so soon after. There, that is the catastrophizing again, right there in print.
While she is going to get it checked tomorrow, for which I am grateful, I cannot process the emotions and stress of the past couple of weeks very well. I feel twisted and broken, and like I cannot access the tools I know I have.
How do you guys cope with the grief along side the anxiety we normally battle? I have lost one parent, and now am projecting my HA onto my mother because I so worried about losing her too, it is like all the years of progress pushing back and living with the anxiety have vanished.
Grief and anxiety make excellent bedfellows, as it turns out, and I want to kick anxiety back out of the house.
My dad recently passed away at 82, just a couple weeks ago. My mom and I are devastated, naturally, even though it wasn't a total surprise.
Now, in the past couple days my mom, who is 81, has developed a painful swelling on the side of her neck. It could be a million things, and I am not googling, nor do I plan to, but the worry after losing my father, the catastrophizing is right there, and I am having a hell of a time subduing it. She has no other real symptoms.
I have coping tools, but they seem weak and pathetic in the face of grief and stress we both feel. I worry about my mom succumbing to the grief she feels. I know this swelling could even be an immune response from the anxiety and depression she is feeling. The only thing worse than having lost my father would be to lose my mother so soon after. There, that is the catastrophizing again, right there in print.
While she is going to get it checked tomorrow, for which I am grateful, I cannot process the emotions and stress of the past couple of weeks very well. I feel twisted and broken, and like I cannot access the tools I know I have.
How do you guys cope with the grief along side the anxiety we normally battle? I have lost one parent, and now am projecting my HA onto my mother because I so worried about losing her too, it is like all the years of progress pushing back and living with the anxiety have vanished.
Grief and anxiety make excellent bedfellows, as it turns out, and I want to kick anxiety back out of the house.