Chris Platts

April is Stress Awareness month. With what is going on in the world currently it could be argued that everyone is suffering with some form of stress. It can be work, finances, war, family… literally anything you can think of can cause it. All of it can affect your mental and physical health quite dramatically. I know I struggle with it quite regularly. My problem is catastrophising. Once an idea gets into my head I seem I struggle to keep it from overrunning my head and thinking that everything is going to be a disaster. I’ve been doing it for years. Like the one that got me up at 4am today. Our youngest has jumped into bed. Nothing out of the norm. In fact pretty much happens every night. However tonight for some reason my head has decided that because I was extremely tired yesterday that I’m going to roll on to them and smother them. I know I’m not. Between the 2 kids they’ve probably jumped into bed hundreds, if not thousands of time. But this time my brain decides that this is the time I’m going to do it so now I’m wide awake. Great. I’ve got a busy day planned with the family and now I’m going to be tired, which in turn means I’m going to start overthinking everything. It goes on and on. Or does it. I’ve been doing this in my head for years. So I’ve learned different ways in which to stop this vicious circle of overthinking happen. Doing this, writing, helps me. By getting my thoughts out of my head I can categorise the issues better. I’m currently listening to a chilled acoustic guitar playlist because it settles and distracts me. I sometimes switch on the PlayStation and play some games, watch my favourite movies, or find a podcast to listen to. Doing these things help bring me back down to earth from the disasters that I was thinking of. Learning safe coping strategies are a great way to stopping you going that one step too far.

If you suffer from stress and anxiety issues them why not join Buddy Check and see how others manage. Or if you’ve got some good tips on how to cope why not put them onto our forums for everyone else to see them. You never know you might be helping someone who is really struggling.