Exceptional Stress - How to Handle

Those with Serious Mental Conditions May Have a Low Threshhold for Stress

Photo by Sydney Latham on Unsplash

I am not going out on a limb here when I say I require less stress in my environment.

I have been diagnosed with schizophrenia later schizoaffective disorder since the late 2000s. It was an ugly process of accepting my diagnosis. That’s probably not unlike a lot of people with the illness. As an aside, the term for that is anosognosia.

What I need to realize is that the process of accepting my diagnosis may come on a spectrum. The extremes of the spectrum consist of me refusing to take my meds because I think I am well. The other extreme is… Well, I’m not sure what the other end is. Perhaps, it is surrender.

I’ll explore what it is like to have a healthy acceptance. Perhaps, the other end of the spectrum is the belief that I cannot handle anything because of illness. Perhaps, it is giving up on all challenges.

A healthy acceptance is taking my medications as prescribed. A healthy acceptance is realizing I need to watch myself with my alcoholism. I must not get too hungry, angry, lonely, or tired (HALT).

I write on acceptance today, because I had to take a step back.

I am leaving my job today because… well, I think I was doing damage to my brain from the stress level.

Now, I’ve come full circle with my thoughts. I’m back to my point of not being able to handle a lot of stress. The honest reality is, I could hardly pull myself together to do my assignments at work.

It has occurred to me that I need to make a strategic retreat. I would rather leave the company on good terms than be in a position where I cannot complete the work.

I don’t have a high tolerance for stress.

To share a little bit about the job, I felt as though every time I started an assignment, I was about to run the Kentucky Derby. Granted, all jobs in this world have problems. The time limits imposed on the completion of my assignments was my primary challenge.

I really just couldn’t do the job anymore, and so I return to the topic of stress.

I ran a Gemini search on why “Schizophrenics can’t handle a lot of stress.” It provided no shortage of reasons.

The purpose of my writing is not to reiterate what someone can easily find with an internet search.

I want to write from my experience.

As it relates to my job stress, I am overwhelmed by anxiety about starting my assignments. I can almost viscerally feel the pressure in my head from the requirements of my work assignments.

I tell myself over and over, the job is just not that big of a deal. In spite of the affirmations, I can’t get past the pages of requirements my assignments entail.

I imagine one could tell me to just relax and be strategic. I tried it. My self-talk won’t let me do it.

I won’t be vague about my job requirements in my writing today.

In my position, I work independently and complete assignments that have their guidance in the form of 23-30 pages of instructions.

I should reframe here and say to myself, “This might be a difficult job for a lot of people, you did good in making it 2 ½ years.”

I’m saddened that I could not continue with the job. The fact that I had to do a strategic retreat is a reality I must accept.

Learning acceptance and reframing in a positive light will be my goal as I get through this low point. Life is full of ups and downs. This is a low point, but there will be better times. Life can be good.