Speak Up 4 Mental Health Now!

Long weekends away should be exciting, fun, and relaxing. For me it is exciting, stressful, anxiety filled, and exhausting. Don't get me wrong, I love traveling, but recently my OCD has taken over and controls my life more than I would like. So traveling isn't as relaxing as I would like, it is far from that.  Our lovely friends are getting married this weekend up in the mountains of CO. We are so happy and excited for them. Plus, this is a new area to explore that we haven't seen in CO and are very excited. Hot springs, mountain vistas, and nature all around us!! Sounds perfect right, yes!!  However, for me, I am thinking: shared beds, dirty carpets, germ covered door knobs, gross and unclean remotes, and god only knows what was last thing touching everything in the bathroom. Just thinking about that is causing anxiety for me and making me exhausted. Yes I know they clean the rooms, and this is a very nice place we are staying at for the wedding, but it is the unkno...

How can one wake up with anxiety? I mean aren't we supposed to wake up feeling refreshed and ready for the day.  Most days I do wake up in a great mood ready for the day and feeling refreshed. Nope, not this morning. I woke up with the worst anxiety, and had an anxiety attack before even getting out of bed. It wasn't like I have anything stressful going on today to be anxious about. Or even anything super exciting that would make be anxious for it.   Because of this I was slow all day long, distracted, scatterbrained, and anxious. This made me get behind with everything, and I like routine, and my routine was off. In turn this made me angry. I didn't get everything done today that I needed to, but the laundry can wait till tomorrow. However, I feel bad that I didn't get a chance to take my pups for a daily walk. Now I feel like I have have failed them for the day. (Believe me, these pups are my life and they are spoiled rotten so don't feel too bad for ...

Ahhh! Accomplishment!! Doesn't it feel amazing? Yes, I love when I can say, "Well yes, I did that." or "Yup, I finished it.", but today wasn't that day.  Hours of painting at the top of a ladder, all for not. Yup, the color doesn't match. Second mis-tint in a row, fail home improvement store, FAIL ! Now mind you, I have a paralyzing fear of falling. (Icing on the multi-layered cake my friends of my mental issues. LOL) I could be 2 inches off the ground or 15 feet, like I was part of today.  However, I was still able to prevail. Even though I have to paint the areas all over again, and have to deal with that height again; I still won. Yup, that's right people, I still said I won.  Every time I face my fear of falling it gets a microscopic bit better. I mean barely even a noticeable amount easier for me. I am not looking forward to climbing that ladder again. To be completely honestly with you, I want to tell the store they need to come and red...

There are several things that bring me peace and inner tranquility, hiking, kayaking, and riding on the back of my hubby's motorcycle. These are a few that come time mind right now. Today was one of those days where I had nothing but peace. We went for a ride up the Poudre Canyon and during those hours, I had nothing but peace. No OCD symptoms, no anxiety and my ADHD was not even in view. Only thing in view was nature, natural beauty, or God's glory, whatever you want to call it. I had truly found my inner tranquility. It was perfect, other than the few bugs that decided to cover my helmet shield.  If you don't know what this feels like, go find it! Everyone needs to have these places or things that give them this feeling. It could be anything from taking a long bath, reading your favorite poem, or book, or even just sitting in your favorite spot. Take it in, breathe, listen to your surroundings, and enjoy them. Don't let those thoughts, f...