Taking Yourself On: Effective Strategies to Deal with Disrespect

September 28, 2019 at 08:00AM Debbie Jacobs
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My Coping Kit for Bipolar Depression and Anxiety

September 27, 2019 at 09:05AM Julie Peck
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Hope & Harmony Headlines: Putting Anxiety in its Place

September 26, 2019 at 01:02PM bp Magazine
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by Carol L. Rickard

After managing a taxing event or difficult time, you might think you’re in the clear. But stress is like an earthquake that triggers waves of exhaustion and depletion. To recover from this delayed response, first you have to recognize what’s happening.

Waking Up Exhausted Isn’t Always from Depression

When my alarm went off at 5:00 this morning, I woke up feeling paralyzed…. I couldn’t move to get out of bed.

It’s a good thing I didn’t have to be anywhere, so I reset my alarm to 6 a.m.

The SAME thing happened.… I felt stuck, like I was in cement!

One more time, I reset my alarm—this time I had to make myself get up because I had to leave to drive home.

The good news: It wasn’t the depression causing this to happen.

Instead, it was something I’d discovered during my 27 years of teaching stress mastery to patients in the hospital.

I’d just experienced a …

“Stress Tidal Wave”

Now, you’re probably wondering, What is a Stress Tidal Wave?

What I’d discovered is when we face a very stressful situation and we get ourselves through it, there is still more stress response to come!

In other words, there’s a stress ripple response.

It’s just like when there’s an earthquake and then we have to put out tsunami warnings afterward. The earthquake occurs and then, sometime later, the ripple effect of the earthquake arrives as a tidal wave.

Recognizing the Stress Response

Like a real tidal wave, Stress Tidal Waves can be scary if you don’t know what is happening and are not prepared for them.

I witnessed this once, at a training session about six months ago. Suddenly, a woman collapsed in her seat. The paramedics came, and everything checked out okay.

I later found out that she’d been taking care of her five grandchildren over the weekend, and two of them had special needs. 

When I learned of how stressful things had been for her, I shared how I thought she’d just experienced a Stress Tidal Wave.

Her body got her through the very stressful weekend of taking care of the kids, then the exhaustion hit her a few days afterward.

This effect is well known. I remember doing a college internship at a company that was facing a hostile bid takeover. The board meeting was on Saturday and they put the emergency rooms on heart-attack-alert status for Monday.

What I hope you walk away with is this:

1. Understanding what a Stress Tidal Wave is: a ripple response after the immediate stressor has been dealt with.
2. Being able to recognize and manage them, since we cannot stop them: build in recovery time after stressful events. Allow yourself the space, time, and peace you will need, should a Stress Tidal Wave come ashore.

~To Living Well TODAY!~

The post The Stress Tidal Wave: Coping with the Aftereffects of Trying Times appeared first on hopetocope.com | Hope To Cope With Anxiety & Depression.

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How to Stop a Bipolar Mood Swing and Get on with Life

September 26, 2019 at 09:28AM Julie A. Fast
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The Life-Changing Habit of Writing: Journaling as a Form of Therapy

September 25, 2019 at 09:23AM Lynn Rae
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