Squirrel Girl

Hi! I'm a 25 year old woman working three jobs and attempting to make a name for myself as an artist (I gotta degree and everything!) Coming to terms with adulthood and managing the overwhelming, paralyzing stress that accompanies it is a bit difficult. I've always had anxiety issues (I think it's hereditary?) and my tramatic childhood doesn't help either. You'd think it'd make me stronger, right? (I lost my parents along with some other junk, long-story-short) During situations of stress and high energy, I either become a deer-in-headlights or a chattering squirrel, knocking stuff over and stumbling over words. It takes me forever to calm down and people have often asked if I'm okay. Ordinarily I'm a more subdued person (I think?), so it freaks me out when I freak out. I always thought my spirit animal was a cat, but it's probably more likely a squirrel.

[BonnieSue]

Hi squirrel girl,

Squirrels are pretty wired individuals as you surely know. Lots of anxiety floating around. Lots of flight or fight adrenaline running through their cute little veins. Does that sound like you? It's not very useful to have all of that stimulation running through your system so I think a visit to your doctor to get checked out for any other problems might be a good idea before deciding it's all attributable to anxiety. Especially if you are willing to take a medicine to keep the anxiety down to a more normal level. You don't want to take a medicine for anxiety if there's an honest-to-goodness deficit such as a lack of vitamin D, B12 or thyroxine (seen in hypothyroidism) going on and it's left untreated.

I'm sorry to hear that you lost your parents and had even more trauma happen than that. Those are major life events that profoundly affect our days and nights. You mentioned trauma and childhood and stress and all of that is a heavy load indeed and so early in life for you!! You have my sympathies! You might want to consider counseling to work through some of these things that must be hard to fully absorb in a healthy way for you. Please don't underestimate the power of these events to traumatize you even later in life when you haven't processed them in a healthy way. I'm cheering for you and your good mental health! I want the best for you! You have had a tough time, girlfriend!! Go easy on yourself!

You know how hard it is to make a name for yourself as an artist still living, right? It would be unusual for your art to support you while you're still around. It simply takes much longer than that, as most artists have found. I hope you can enjoy what you're doing artistically and not be too concerned about making a name for yourself. Life is for living!

[Lovejones1983]

You got three jobs..... And I can't even find one😑