Saturday, July 24, 2010

Juggling Lemons

Tang and pucker. That acidic taste stuck at the back of your tongue for what seems like hours. Even as a small child, lemonade was never my favorite. Ok I admit it ..... The stuff makes me gag, ack, cough, cough, hork!


That oh so lovely saying, " when life gives you lemons, make lemonade" makes me cringe and shudder. Honestly I am just about to toss all the lemons out the door!  I need to come up with another saying altogether.

I found out this week after a lovely and adventurous half hour ride through the rolling hills of wheat to the nearest emergency room , that I am heart broken because of all that lovely lemonade. It's time to clean out the pantry so to speak. Oh joy, there's nothing I love better than cleaning! :)


 

After giving up a rather large amount of  my life blood, being wired for sound and video, and grilled under a spotlight. The conclusion was I was having a full blown anxiety attack. Now where the heck did that come from!? This is a completely new experience. I was tutored on the fine art of giving up caffeine (oh crap!) medications available, follow up Dr visits, and  the  wonderful advice of " avoid stress"....HA HA :D

 So the caffeine withdrawal headache only lasted a couple of days.  I have found a decent decaf bean to fake myself out in the morning. The dreaded appointments with Dr Frankenstein have been scheduled. Right now my stress reduction has consisted of taking naps, and not worrying about the house as I still feel residual droopiness. So all you beautiful women.....what do you do when you are stressed? Share your favorite stress reducers in comments. I would love to hear :) ( Oh and there is no way I'm giving up my dark chocolate!)
Be good to yourselves!
Creative Blessings, Theresa

7 comments:

Baroness Bijoutery said...

Unfortunately my darling daughter this seems to run in our family. The women in this family keep taking it and storing it until the first attack. Of course medication does help, even a small dose. Of course getting rid of all the stupid people around you would help too...Love you baby...

And when life gives you Lemons throw them against sometime hard, the smush makes you feel so much better...

Sue said...

Ah Theresa.........I feel for you and as a fellow sufferer of anxiety/panic attacks I know how scary they can be.

Decreasing the caffeine definitely helps (this includes caffeine in chocolate and medications too). And yes, you will get used to decaf coffee - as long as you have a great bean.

I don't experience them nearly as often as I used to (which was a lot!) and I agree with your mom that even a very small dose of medication (in my case it was Ativan) can help. Unfortunately sometimes you really can't do much about the stupid people LOL

Deep breaths!

Sue

Unknown said...

I don't suffer from anxiety attacks but I have found reading to destress me and yoga works too. Hope you are feeling better...some nice walks by yourself would be nice, huh?

FlightFancy said...

You guys are angels! :) Apparently 'one day at a time' applies here. I do walk to work twice a week (weather permitting). Karen if I can figure out how to sit and read without falling asleep in 3 minutes I would be all over that! :) It's difficult to learn how to be gentler with yourself. A new lesson to be learned!

Debrina said...

Hi Theresa - thanks so much for coming on by and saying hi and leaving such a lovely comment. Ahhh....panic attacks...my old "friends". You're probably surprised to find that heaps of us out there suffer from them. The first time I had an "attack" I thought I was going to die. So hyperventilated and ended up passing out! Lol. Now, if I get hit by one, it's get me a paperbag quick! You can get meds for the attacks - sedatives that are long lasting, like clonazapam are good just until your serotonin levels pick up again (an antidepressant might even help to). Panic attacks are always a warning that your serotonin is getting low, due to stress, and once you start getting them there's nothing you can really do but ride through them until your serotnin levels are back to normal. In the meantime, get rid of the stressors in your life, as they are just compounding the problem and learn how to "ride" the waves of panic. They will go; they won't kill you; and treat them as a learning experience. Good luck, my friend.

BundlesofBlossoms said...

Oh, goodness, where to begin. I have anxiety/panic attacks, as well, No where near what they used to like back in 2001 to about2008.

I learned that saying this helps me stop one before it starts or if I am actually in the middle of on-just to slow my heart rate down. Say and do this:

(inhale through ypur nose and say this.) "Smell the roses"

(now, exhale and blow out through youe mouth while saying this)"blow out the candles"

Do this as many times as it takes until your breathing settles down.

Hope it helps.....also writing things down on paper or here on a blog helps the stress. Scheduled sleep is a huge plus, too.

Hope these things work:)

Holly said...

Oh heavens, I'm so sorry that you're going through this! It's so not fun :(

My favorite stress relievers include taking a car ride with some loud pounding music...sans phone! Also equine therapy (aka horses) works wonders.

Good luck to you! Giving up caffiene is tough, but I'm with you, no way to give up chocolate!