Dear Lindsey:

What you described, new stress increasing your already present stress and anxiety, further tiring you, exhausting you, leading you to be “irritable, impulsive, more talkative, less able to concentrate and pay attention to detail, brain feels foggy, rush through tasks without thought, going through the motions”-

-this happens to every single human being when experiencing elevated anxiety. It is not a unique process that happens to you only, or to people in a certain category of mental disorder or diagnosis. It is a human biochemical process that involves hormones being secreted to the blood, and in combination with the heart working faster, reaching the arms and legs,  filling them with oxygen, and withdrawing from the brain, so that less oxygen reaches the brain, leading to that fogy-brain feeling and decreased cognitive functioning such as attention and concentration.

“Finally all the gold fish (the stress) .. crash. I feel depressed”-

-following all that biochemical and muscular activity, the heart working fast, muscles contracting, the body is exhausted. Depression happens as anxiety exhausts us, draining our energy.

When we misunderstand this to happen to only us, or to only people with this or that diagnosis, we take this universal human process personally and conclude that we are less than others, weird, or freaks of nature. This misunderstanding causes more stress, more anxiety, more fish crashing.

Naturally, an oxygen hungry brain, an exhausted body does lead to compromised functioning in every area, including work and relationships.

I will reply to you further tomorrow morning, in about 14 hours from now.

anita