Dealing With Stress

R.a.n.t. of week 09/30/12

Stress is something everyone, at some point in their lives, experiences. As individuals, we all seem to deal with it in our own ways. For some, whatever problem is stressing them, they like to face head-on. Others like to hide the problem, trying to forget, putting it on the 'back burner' so to speak. Lately, I've been dealing with a considerable amount of stress and have been reflecting on how to deal with it all. Currently I've got two children who are just in the teenage years. Talk about stress! I refuse to believe I was this stressful to my parents when I was a teen. Unfortunately, my dad disagrees with me. He says he was pulling his hair out all the time dealing with me. Speaking of my dad, he's currently the main focus of my stress, mostly through worry. He's currently dealing with cancer in the form of lymphoma. If that weren't bad enough, last Friday he fell in the house and broke his hip. Of course there was no one else in the house to help so he did what he could to reach the phone and wait for help. A week later he's got pins in his hip (fortunately he didn't need to get a hip replacement) and is on his way to a rehab centre for a few weeks.

So how do I deal with the stress? Music is a cure-all for me when I'm dealing with mental instabilities; i.e. depression, stress, feelings of worthlessness, you get the idea. But not everyone is aware I deal with all these problems. Mostly because there is another way I deal with my stress and what-not - humour. Again, everyone deals with stress in their own way. I was recently with a friend who is having major house problems. Him and his wife are VERY stressed out as most of the ceilings have to be replaced as well as some of the walls. Asbestos needs to be dealt with additionally. My friend deals with it a lot like me, joking and making light of it. As a person who also uses humour, I know how much it bothers him. Some people seem to think those of us who try to deal with stress by making jokes aren't taking things seriously. But we do, in fact the more we joke, the more it's likely bothering us.

Despite all this, I also have the problem of feeling like I don't deserve these feelings. I see other people dealing with problems much more serious than what I'm going through, so I wonder if it's even fair for me to be stressed. Should I own these feeling? Is it right for me to feel the way I do? Am I just being ridiculous? I'll have to think about this some more tonight as I watch my double feature of Monty Python's Holy Grail and the Three Amigos.