The power of the written word when you’re constantly worrying.
Writing it all down helps.
I thought when I hit my forties I’d start to worry less. I’d be more together and more confident and discover the small stuff isn’t worth sweating about.
But here I am. I’d like to say in my mid-forties, but who am I kidding? I’m forty-seven and yesterday sent a text to my friend after a particularly stressful period had come to an end.
I wrote: “Last night I was completely overwhelmed and couldn’t sleep. Lots of stress is finally over so I’m now stressing about the small stuff and listing it all in my head. Why am I doing this? It’s over!”
My friend knew exactly what I was talking about. “Why do we always find so many things to stress about???”
Let’s be clear. I’m not talking about generalised anxiety disorder here. I’ve been there and it’s awful. I’m not talking about actual stress either even though myself and my friend have used the word in our messages.
I’m just talking about intentionally filling my head with worries and never allowing myself to fully relax.
What I’m worrying about is what the internet would call ‘first-world problems’. I know I’m lucky in many senses of the word. But that doesn’t stop my head from catastrophising small issues that can go…
