Anxiety – When You Can’t Cope With The Small Things

Anxiety – When You Can’t Cope With The Small Things

I’m having a not so great mental health day. There’s nothing major going on, I’ve just got lots of little things escalating. Often it’s not the big things that break you down, but it’s a mixture of all the small things that get you to crack.

When lots of little things are worrying us, but they don’t seem bad enough to deserve sympathy, we are unkind to ourselves. Thoughts such as why am I so weak, why can’t I cope with the small things, might run through your head. 

I imagine a huge, scary life event like a T-rex. Everyone can see the T-rex, they can see how ferocious and overpowering it is.

People who are getting attacked by a T-rex have a justifiable reason to be scared. But what about those teeny little carnivorous dinosaurs that hunt in packs, and destroy everything they come across? That’s what the small things are like. They’re small, but deadly when it comes to your mental health.

So don’t be ashamed if everything is simply getting on top of you. Or if you can’t seem to cope but there’s not one big reason why. You often have to look at all the things on the sidelines in order to see what’s really going on.

I can feel things building, and today I just had to get out of the house to clear my head. Sometimes you can take too much on without even realising it. You juggle 101 things and say yes to lots of different stuff and before you know it you are being pulled in all directions.

When the small things cause you issues, you feel silly. You feel like you don’t deserve any help from your family and friends because your reasons for feeling anxious or upset are so insignificant.

I imagine telling people and picture them laughing inside, and thinking jeeze, how pathetic is she?

There are people out there worse than you and you feel like you should just get on with it. But that’s the thing about stress/anxiety/depression, it doesn’t matter why others are suffering, it matters that you are. You don’t have to have an excuse or a big reason to become broken.

I’m sat here feeling utterly shit because I don’t want to deal with all these small things, but I’m also proud of myself. Because I have recognised that the tension is building.

The anxiety gods are calling my name, but now I’m shouting back at them and saying I don’t need to listen to you. I’m going to talk to someone and figure out a plan of action. What can I do to make the small things seem bearable and help myself to cope better?

Like many people nowadays, I feel like I have a million and one things running through my head. I can’t cope with all the endless Whatsapp messages, many of which require me to take some sort of action or do something.

I’m beginning to dread Whatsapp messages like you dread a bad email hitting your inbox.

I need to shut off from it, but I can’t. There are too many things that need to be organised. Until these things are sorted, I have to stay on Whatsapp, which makes me want to bang my head against a wall, over and over again. Why can’t we just go back to making phone calls and sending the odd text message?

There’s so much noise going on all the time. Often when we really need a mental health day, or a break from all the demands placed on us, we can’t get away from it all. Because our phones keep buzzing and there’s always something to think about.

My advice? If all the small things are driving you crazy, take some time away from the world. Go somewhere, even for just a few hours, without a phone.

For example, I took the dogs for a two-hour walk, and spent some time in a beautiful section of the woods with the dogs running free, gathering my thoughts.

Before I left the house I felt like I wanted to curl up in a duvet and hide away from the world, but that wouldn’t do any good. When I got back from my walk, I still felt the anxious thoughts and stressful little things whizzing around my head, but I also felt more grounded, and able to reflect on what was going on a little better.

So now I’m writing this post, and churning out my thoughts. Personally I find writing really helps to ease the pain, and it enables me to process things. After getting an email from Change.org, I came to realise it’s World Mental Health Day. Ooops. How did I not know that? I blog about anxiety and mental health issues all the time and I had not clue it was World Mental Health Day.

After a quick check I realised #WorldMentalHealthDay is trending on Twitter and I felt proud. I’m so pleased that people are talking about this subject so much and there are so many brave people baring their soul to the internet via blogs, videos and social media. I really do sense a change in the way people see mental health, and I’m excited to be a part of it.

3 Comments

  1. Komal
    April 21, 2018 / 4:31 am

    This speaks to me. My brother is calm no matter what calamity falls upon him, and he is younger than me. So when I worry about minute things- what if the professors yells at me, what if my battery runs out, what if the examiner dislikes my project, is it enough, am I enough- all day long, I feel stupid. I can’t always go and talk to people, because I don’t want them to think I’m whiny. It’s a struggle and I feel it in my chest and in the shortness of my breath.

  2. Samrat
    June 1, 2018 / 8:03 pm

    Thank you for your effort. Reading your post really helped!! I have the same issue. Exactly the same with messages. Its like anxiety does not surface after the reason, it take its roots in you out of nowhere and takes the shape of any little issue or reason to bother you. On top of that, having to feel that why you are anxious itself adds up to more anxiety. The reason can be anything. So i stopped bothering myself as of why i am feeling anxious for such a petty issues when i have endured far more painful incidents in the past with ease. For me, anxiety is a period of time, there comes a time (days/months) when my anxiety is surfaced. I am working on myself. Although, telling to someone close about it is still an issue for me, so i am by myself for now. But since we are on the same boat(sort of) i feel comfortable to comment.

  3. Jessica Naranjo
    June 8, 2018 / 5:40 pm

    Thank you so much for sharing your thoughts! It feels nice to hace someone who understands what I’m going through!

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