Hearts

I'm in the middle of car shopping and all the stresses and headaches that come with it. I'm experiencing stress. Not acute stress like, "I have fifty trillion things to do before my Drs appointment today!" stress but that lingering undertow that comes with a major life change. I realize that every major change such as moving I'd escaped with alcohol. So, what do I do now? The gym didn't help. Do I just... live with it? Sort of like you know you just have to do the withdrawal thing? Buckle your seat belt and wait it out? It's really wearing at me and I am having a really hard time distracting myself from the stress and the feeling to just drink it away.

matt4x4

Its called life. Life happens. I find if I am close to God, if I am praying and meditating not medicating, then the stress level decreases. Its easy to stay sober when nothing is going on, its harder when life happens.

huntingtontx

You are doing great, posting here. Good job. I read most urges don't last to long, it will pass. I only have seven months, but I can relate. When I get back from a long trip I always want a drink. Good news, it passes. That and ice cream. Ice cream makes it all better somehow for me. LOL..... I will be praying. You can do this.

FeelingGreat

I think you nailed it there. I do sympathise though, car shopping freaks me out every time, but putting it in perspective, it's not life threatening, unless it causes relapse.

KateL

I just take some deep breathes or have a sleep if I can when stressed. xxxx

Admiral

You should differentiate between the emotional side of the stress, and the thought. Emotions are caused by thoughts, they are the physical feelings that come along with a thought, like seeing a scary image causes us to have a faster heartbeat and urge to run away or fight... You should figure out what thought is attached to the stress.

Are you worried you won't find a car?
Are you worried you'll overpay?
Are you nervous, talking to sales people?
Something else?

Any type of worry is future based, which means it isn't really happening in the present moment. It COULD happen, or it could not, the important thing to realize is that it's not happening currently. Unfortunately the body cannot differentiate between thought and reality, and so thinking about something stressful will cause the same reaction as actually experiencing it. That doesn't seem like too good a deal, why would you want to experience something that isn't happening?

A lot of time we can't really help it. Trying not to think a certain way is exhausting. It's easier to allow all thought to happen, but to recognize it and not take part in the thoughts that are negative.

I'm going to graduate from college soon, and sometimes I get really stressed out about it.

It's going to be hard to find a job.
No one will hire me with no experience
I'm unemployable
I'll make a mistake
I'll get fired for being incompetent
No one will care about my education because it's not from a university...

Those kinds of thoughts still happen, but I don't care about them, I don't pay them any mind. I have the choice to either believe in those thoughts, and become sick with worry, or allow them to exist, and realize that they are not true. it's like a wind up spring, the more effort you put into your thoughts, the more tense the spring is, but if left to its own devices, and given no energy, the spring will unwind and eventually cease to function.

I hope this makes sense and helps.

shi

WORRY NOT. people in my country are dying of hunger and luck of water. therefore, buying a car should be fun n not stressful coz theyze those with greater problems. cool? take it easy.