Stress

Have you ever gone through that period of prolonged stress? What caused it and what kept you in it for that long? How did you eventually get out of it? Feel free if your in this position now too.

I can remember one time I went through something incredibly stressful. I used to work for a bookshop here in Australia that had been well estbalished for around 120 years or so. Due to some poor financial decisions, the Australian dollar going up, and the decline in physical book sales, our company went bankrupt and had to close down. As a result of this, we were unable to process gift cards (the premise of this being that the customer gives you a certain amount of money with the intention of redeeming it at a later date, and you give them a card representing that dollar amount). To cut a long story short, I was facing the stress of unemployment, the loss of my second family (I love my old co-workers so damn much!), and having to put up with customer abuse as a result of them effectively being cheated out of their own money. This went on for, oh, two and a half months.

Once the store shut down, that was pretty much it. But that stress stayed with me for quite some time afterward. I'm pretty sure it exacerbated the shit out of my pre-existing mild social anxiety. I felt physically sick going in to work, I was constantly in "fight or flight" mode, and would end up with huge migraines at the end of the day. I didn't find myself a replacement job for another 7 months because I was worried I would snap at customers if they even looked like they were going to be rude or non-compliant. It's now been a year and a month since the whole incident, and I'm definitely not as fragile as I was during that period. But it was unfortunate that I couldn't do much about my circumstance. No matter how much I tried to placate the customers, or sympathise with them, that didn't stop them from being aggressive, throwing books at us, yelling at us, sometimes even threatening us (one of our stores had to hire a security guard because a man became so violent that he vaulted over the counter to attack the sales assistant). I am so thankful that my co-workers were as wonderful as they were, because we definitely banded together as a united front and tried to support one another through all of that crap. :)

I have always stressed a lot. Year ago it went so bad I couldn't go to school for a week so I just stayed home, cried and listened to music. It really became depression but I was able to go to school for the last of the spring after my friends visited me. Now I go to adult high school and things are much better since I don't really have to study subjects I don't need and I don't have any pressure to be social or graduate the same time as everyone else. It's a completely clique-free school and I love it.

Quite a few times, seems to be associated with social or performance anxiety.
The first real instance was when I was doing a year long apprenticeship (aka internship program) where I just felt torn between high productivity demands and doing coursework at the same time with virtually not support just a barrage of performance complaints - ended up having to take 5 weeks off work with weight loss and attempts to fire me when others were worse.

The second case was last year when I got really behind on coursework and found my senses went into overdrive in response, with strong sound sensitivity that took months to decrease and started shutting down becoming 'vegetative' occasionally experiencing mind-muscle paralysis for up to an hour or more having to will muscles to work.

The third time it occurred lasted for the end of January to May, where it become common to get stress headaches from excessive study patterns that become all encompassing (4-6 day weeks with 4-14hour days being common) in a push to get degree work done before graduation deadlines.

How overcaming?... time, patience, accepting that limitations are there for a reason; to protect us from ourselves, acknowledging that imperfection is good as long as we stay true to our personal principles and don't let others sway us easily.

Originally Posted by poisonpinkpony

I have always stressed a lot. Year ago it went so bad I couldn't go to school for a week so I just stayed home, cried and listened to music. It really became depression but I was able to go to school for the last of the spring after my friends visited me. Now I go to adult high school and things are much better since I don't really have to study subjects I don't need and I don't have any pressure to be social or graduate the same time as everyone else. It's a completely clique-free school and I love it.

Your situation really does seem to be a lot like what I was in not so long ago at all. How you felt, and what you did. Though I didn't have the option of not facing my fears directly.

How overcaming?... time, patience, accepting that limitations are there for a reason; to protect us from ourselves, acknowledging that imperfection is good as long as we stay true to our personal principles and don't let others sway us easily.

Well said.

Sadly, I have minimal recollection of stress =/ It's like emotions load different memory disks in the brain.

Originally Posted by Wakachi

Sadly, I have minimal recollection of stress =/ It's like emotions load different memory disks in the brain.

Me too, but that might be because it was a particular event that clogged everything. It's like if I have to face it all or not even think about it. And that won't work. :P