Overwhelming Anxiety

[Nic00]

First post here from someone who prides themselves on being level-headed, self sufficient, resilient and kind of smart. All of those things makes this even harder to acknowledge, however the last few weeks has forced me too admit I am struggling with stress. In short, this due to a series of challenging circumstances in my life that keep getting piled on; I am going through separation, 2 young kids with over 80% care while working - incidentally where I been advised my contract is not being renewed so currently also job hunting, have also been advised of a medical issue (not virus), car broke down, phone died and general life admin .... all leaves me all feeling quite overwhelmed and anxious to the point where it has started to manifest physically with hand shaking. That was all before the recent and changing circumstances of the Corona Virus and 'panic buying' with support and minimal contact from the kids' father, I am feeling quite exhausted! Now that all sounds incredibly dramatic and likely I'll be told to seek therapy (which I do from time to time) usually I can stay on top of it all however these last weeks I have felt an unrelenting wave of exhaustion and stress where I am not coping emotionally, soapy at my beautiful kids, am clearly not sleeping which does not help of course. Simply writing this down has been more cathartic than all the thoughts rotating in my head for weeks! I don't have an issue expressing my vulnerabilities or openly discussing my struggles, we are all going through something and that's nothing to be embarrassed about and sharing does help - but I do pride myself on being able to manage and right now i have a problem that I can't see to get on top of it and have clarity of decisions that is so core to who i have always been. Even the little decisions seem very big right now and at times paralysing. My kids keep me grounded and sane and although exhausting somehow also give me the energy just by being; a core purpose to keep going and incredibly sobering and grounding.
Any suggestions on managing anxiety (practical ways for a busy single-mum of 2 with little time or money!) as having both emotional and now physical manifestations for a prolonged period is obviously not a recipe for long term health & happiness! thank you 🙂

[NotSoSilent]

Hey there Nic00,
I am brand new here too so hopefully I don't stuff it up too bad.

Bravo for getting all of this out, it's definitely cathartic as you said, to really see and understand what you are feeling.

I have been having a tough run at work and I was feeling constantly overwhelmed. I was never good enough, I could get things done to my normal standard at work or home, I thought I was letting my people down etc.

One thing that has helped me (I'm no were near good yet, but helped!) Was finding something I enjoyed but had stopped doing which was reading, and I also found some mindfulness online audios that I liked.

For the mindfulness audio I am not normally a person who meditated but just listening to someone calmly talking me through my breathing and my thoughts was really grounding.

Both of the above are free but can take up some time, the meditations I found were between 4 and 12 mins though so you could slot them in anywhere.

Make sure you find the time to prioritise yourself, happy and healthy mum = happy kids.

You got this!