I’ve been rather negligent on the writing the last week or so. Our family has been going through a bit of a crisis the last ten days and I haven’t been able to put thoughts down. Emotionally, I think it’s been the hardest week we’ve ever been through. The situation is not gone, but it’s not looking so terrible now.

I keep thinking about the way stress affects us in so many aspects of our lives. A certain amount of stress is good for us but when we overload our systems, we don’t function. Usually, when I am stressed, I tend to eat. I usually crave chocolate and lots of it. This time, it didn’t happen that way. I was actually coping reasonably well the first few days and was able to support the scientist, who is the one directly affected. By the weekend, my defenses had crumbled and I was sinking into emotional valleys and pulling myself partially out, only to go down again. It was almost like being drowned by the weight of the stress, I suppose. The last couple of days, I found it hard to function so that I wasn’t eating or sleeping well. I lost about four kilograms from my lack of appetite. I wasn’t really there for the kids. Thankfully, they have done quite well and saved us more stress and anxiety. Right now the worst part is probably over so we are functioning again and able to carry on more of a normal daily life.

The serious stress was fairly short-term but I wonder how people manage this on a long -term basis. How does one not go completely nuts?  Of course, sometimes they do. We made the mistake of not sharing with many others the difficulties we were going through. We had some good reasons for this,  but we missed out on a lot of support that could have buoyed us through some of the worst of it. We finally did share and it was so much better even though nothing particular had changed at that point. Our family and friends have been absolutely wonderful and we won’t forget that. It’s not that they can “do” anything but they are there for us. That feeling that you aren’t alone anymore makes a major difference and that’s what counts most.