Relapse! Coping, Symptoms and Tips.

[Catkins]

Happy Christmas Carnation.

This is my second lead up to Christmas in isolation. At least this year I'll get out on Christmas day. Still any plans I've had have been scuppered. Way too much pressure and expectation on what it should be like. Just do what makes you happy and sod the rest.

[Carnation]

Now, that is the spirit catkins
I know for you this is the first year without your mum and theres going to be mixed emotions because of your son's birthday at the same time. Your son knows he has a great mum.
For me, I had my thoughts and memories, but your mum wouldn't want you to dwell on it. Have your moment or moments and be proud of yourself how you have coped and got through the year. Being kind to yourself can be one of the greatest gifts to give to yourself and a little treat is well deserved. I'm very proud of you catkins. xx

[Catkins]

Aww thank you Carnation. You honestly have been such a big help this year and I really appreciate it. I am very fortunate to have found this place, you, BlueIris, Pulisa, FMP, PDU and many more people have helped so much.

It's a long long journey and none of us get it right all of the time. As long as we keep trying that's all we can do.

I am thinking about my mum a lot and will visit her as soon as I'm not housebound. She would be completely knackered by this stage of Christmas. She put too much pressure on herself and I have that tendency too. This year I can't stress now, there is nothing I can do. So Womens Hour is on, I'm pottering around (masked as even though noone is here I might leave droplets somewhere). Take care, dance if you feel like it, eat cake if you can and take full control of the remote (I seem to have earned that these last couple of days - not sure why).

[Carnation]

Merry Christmas!
Remember, it's only a day. Emotions run high. Memories may surface and you don't have to be perfect.

[clio51]

Hi Carnation
im a long time member and when I pop on mainly unfortunately! When I suffering, I always come into your thread as I think your about the same age as me and have many similar traits of anxiety
i dont comment, well maybe a couple of times I have.

hooe you had a anxiety free day, I’m starting to settle now. I’ve took pieces from your thread and added them to my anxiety notes so I can re read and try and calm myself down. I know I’m never gonna be anxiety free, far to many decades off it. The way you write is very reassuring and very true if only as soon as it happens we could switch that positive quote or phase on. Like the random thought/ physical sensation that comes from nowhere, yet fears the god out
of us that whatever we’re doing it pops back up again and again. Until when we’re engaged in something we realise it hasn’t been there for xx time. So distraction, yet we’re supposed to be distracted watching tv but they pop up still ??

you could be a anxiety councillor Carnation �� you use all the right words and even remember them. That’s my problem now, my memory it’s getting worse and at times of anxiety issues I wish I could remember the right words. I know it in practice it’s putting it in the right words and context.

[Carnation]

Hi clio. If you have trouble with remembering, then try to condense it into one sentence or a few words that you can use time again.
For instance, I've recently referred to a high anxiety as energy and it seems less frightening. Then I use up that energy by doing something.
If you have certain coping methods for your anxiety or panic, you can say a few words like breathe, colours, voice. So, that's slow breaths, look for objects of a colour, then talk yourself down.
So much of what we feel is repetitive and you'd think we'd be used to it, but that inner voice will try to say it's something more. So calm yourself as you would do if you were a mother to yourself with a confident response.

[fishman65]

I agree with clio Carnation, I think you'd make an excellent counsellor. You have a way of breaking down problems into manageable chunks. I hope you both, clio and Carnation, have had a good Christmas Day.

[Carnation]

Thank you both for the praise. xx
Isn't it much easier to help others rather than yourself.

[Carnation]

Well, we got through Christmas. Can't say it felt that festive but tried to play along. Ended up getting a jigsaw out to do which strangely caused me a little stress and the need to get it finished in record time, which I did do. Lol.
The weather didn't permit much walking and ended up eating more to compensate for the boredom. Don't think I've ever watched so much tv. My anxiety was at a real high on Christmas Day. Some how I managed to put together a Christmas dinner which led to me thinking "what's this all about? All this build up, for what?"
I managed to catch an outdoor carol service in town on Christmas Eve which was lovely and very community spirited. Once home it was if that spirit had gone.
I sat longing for my normal routine to come back where I knew what I was doing on a day to day basis.
The main thing is getting through it with no calamities, and I managed to do that. I'm pretty sure the weather didn't help the mood this year and that cloud that Boris put over us certainly changed everyone's inspiration.
Tomorrow is New Years Eve and I expect we will all be wishing for a better year and hope for normality and good health. So I'll leave my post today wishing you good health for new year and happiness as a bonus!

[Catkins]

Happy New Year Carnation!

Boxing day was my crappy day. My stepdad was supposed to come round but didn't in the end. Our son went off for a day/night out in Newcastle. So all the food I'd got in wasn't needed. So I was terribly out of sorts and grumpy and yep anxiety was lurking in the background, snapping at my heels.

I think I had some expectation that Boxing day was going to be this fluffy perfect family day and it didn't work out like that. So I guess I had to acknowledge how I was feeling, accept that there was nothing I could do about it and let it go. It wasn't the end of the world (even though at a particular moment I felt it was). By Monday I felt better about it and I kind of reinstated my normal routine a bit.