All Worked Up

Hey guys, it's me, Kathryn!

Today I am writing about stress and the effect it has on me as an individual.

Let me start off with saying I am CONSTANTLY stressed out, and rightly so. I am in all Advanced Academic courses, (hello tons of homework) I am first chair in the top band at my school, I recently got asked to accompany a friend in a solo contest (I have no accompaniment experience) and I am a teenager.

I am also OCD. Not officially, but still. So today I walked into my bedroom after coming home from vacation. There were clothes all over the floor and trash ob the dresser. Basically my room was trashes. (Unfortunately because of my busy schedule my room is not usually clean.) I immediately went into stress mode. I started hyperventilating and sweating and rushing to get things done. It made me sick.

Another example happened tonight. My parents and I have decided together *gulp* that I am going to take the SAT as a Freshman. Obviously we are not expecting stellar scores, but we wanted me to get a chance to see what it was like and practice. Well today the Official Study Guide arrives ob my doorstep. I flipped.

I started thinking about how I was going to be the youngest one, people were going to be staring at me, and tI didn't even know all of the material. I immediately felt sick to my stomach and got a headache (a sign that my blood pressure was rising. All because of a stupid test that I will have multiple opportunities to take again.

Now lets take a look at my physical health this school year.
1) I was diagnosed with PCOS, (polycystic ovarian syndrome) meaning I have imbalanced hormones and have to be placed on birth control pills.
2) I had two sinus infections back to back, resulting in allergy testing. Starting this week I will get allergy shots.
3) I recently found out I have a slightly bulged disk in my back. I have to go to physical therapy 3 times a week for 6 weeks and possible get cortisone injections.

Call me crazy, but I think this can all be traced back to my stress levels. Am I the only one this crazy? I don't think so.

So on to my question for today; How can we make stress levels go down? Are there ways we can cut down on the amount of stress that we personally push onto other people?

All comments are greatly appreciates!

Goodnight!

<3 - Kathryn