Stress

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I get very stressed easily and have been told strategies to stop it. The strategies don't always work and I have several stress toys but in the moment of stress I forget to use them.

I get stressed about little things such as the time my computer takes to load, moderate things such as a mistake and massive things like political and global issues. When I'm stressed I cry, swear, sometimes bite, pinch or scratch myself and stamp around. I try everything to stop it but nothing seems to work.

You're not alone; I'm the same way and I think I know how you feel as this sounds a lot like me too. I too get stressed at all levels - little tiny thing, moderately concerning things and also the huge, global things.

I find that when it's bad I can't watch the news. I literally have to disengage from staying informed on national and world news sometimes, because I know I'm not up to it if other things in my life are particularly pushing on my stress levels already.

As for handling the moderate or small things, I'm worse with that if my life has been stressful generally, for example, If I have not been able to have the amount of quiet time/alone time that I need to function well; if I haven't had enough sleep chronically, or if someone has been a bad experience for me in some way.

My functioning all-around is threatened and strained under those and other circumstances, and that's when my ability not to get further stressed by other little things becomes very poor.

What I have to do is try to manage my general stress factors (named above) so that over-all I'm less stressed, and then I find things like the computer loading slow, moderate stressors and not being able to watch the news actually don't stress me as badly as they might have. It's sort of like a top-down management system -- take care of the big things that run you down, like getting enough rest, enough sleep, enough of a break from too much socializing if that's one of your energy-drainers, and then all the other things that cause me incidental stress don't cause it so badly.

It's still tricky to do though, as I can't always get enough control over my "top down" biggest general stress factors such as (in my case) not enough alone time etc.

There are also techniques such as learning meditation, and breathing systems that are calming; some people say that when they got into meditation practice it spread a ripple of better levels of calm throughout their day. I have not been able to do that but it might be something you could have better success with perhaps.

I hear you, though, about not always remembering strategies and techniques in the heat of the moment. Like I say, it may help to keep an eye on the over-arching, general stress factors that make all the other things more stressful too.