How do you handle stress?

This month has...

Kind of sucked for me.

The roller coaster of life tends to only go as high as it goes low. I think I have mentioned that in previous posts. So, by the laws of motion, if you hit a high point like no other you have ever seen...

Look out.

I have more book contracts than I have ever had before. Personal success is at an all time high. School is wonderful and challenging and exciting. My work in the publishing industry is invigorating and the chats I have had with other pros is thrilling for me. The kids are really blooming lately and our home life is more stable than it has ever been before.

And then we shoot down the hill.

My mom has been sick and that has really been freaking me out. I've been playing in court with my ex (the court date is tomorrow...and I will see how much further that is going to stretch out) and court is time consuming in both sitting around in high tension situations and in the stuff you have to get ready for it. I've had random little things, like my car, that would otherwise have been little things but with the other stresses, got amplified and blown out of proportion to me, already shaken.

School may be going well but finals are stressful.

So this past week, I have felt like a dog, chasing his tail around in circles, accomplishing nothing.

Oh, I have gotten some stuff done. I've watched it go off my desk, so I know stuff is getting done. But with all the hitches and stops and starts, it just FEELS like I am not getting much done and I am not getting ENOUGH done and it puts me behind and it adds to the stress cake and...

I am really looking forward to blowing holes in shit on Saturday. With much prejudice.

Which leads me to my blog topic for the day.

How do you handle stress?

Me? I ignore it.

Yes, I said I ignore it. Other than ranting about it here on the bloggie, I chug more coffee and march double time, soldier.

No, this is not a healthy coping mechanism and I DO NOT recommend you trying it. The docs said I need LOW stress (strokes+stress=not good times) but...heheh...yeah. I don't have TIME for low stress. I have shit that needs to be done and I am all about getting that shit done.

I know that a smart thing for me to do would be to go out and sit on my lovely hill and look out at the grass blowing in the wind, the birds chirping and the clouds moving across the sky...

But if I try to do that crap, my mind is moving in overdrive, rattling through the list of what needs done and the time I am wasting, sitting on my ass...and I go grab the computer to make a list and before you know it, I am fully back to work...until the battery blinks and I move back to the office (which I never REALLY left in the first place).

Some people handle stress by drinking. Some people handle stress by eating. Some exercise. Some ignore shit.

I get stuff done.

I think it is because of that lingering knowledge that there are a lot of people depending on me to get this to do list done...and that the things blinking red in my head (and believe me, even as I type this, there is a LIST of things blinking red) are all attached to PEOPLE on the other end and the sooner I get the stuff done, the sooner the PEOPLE on the other end can do what they need to do. They are depending on ME.

Nope, my jobs aren't rocket science or brain surgery. But they are really important to people who are important to me. So...

Yup. That is how I deal with stress. I throw myself into my work.

How do you deal with stress? By making more (lol) like me or do you have better coping mechanisms?

Happy writing!!