AMY RIVERS |AWARD-WINNING AUTHOR
  • Home
  • BOOKS
    • Suspense / Thriller
    • Women's Fiction
    • Anthologies & Articles
  • NEWS & EVENTS
  • Blog
  • Contact

A is for April’s Fools, Anxiety and Adventure

4/3/2016

0 Comments

 
Picture
​April Fool’s Day for me this year is April 3. This morning I woke up and realized it’s the 3rd day of the month and I’d completely spaced – and I mean, entirely forgotten – to get started on the A to Z Blogging Challenge. Luckily, I’d decided to talk about feelings this month and guess what? A is for anxiety. A perfect segue into today’s blog. Yippee!!
 
I suffer from anxiety. Not the passing “roller coasters make me nervous” (though they do) or “ack! I have to sing in front of how many people??” (I get this one every single time I perform) anxiety. My anxiety is chronic and has made it difficult, at times, to function normally. After my daughter was born, I realized I was having crippling panic attacks every time I breastfed. As it turns out, there’s an actual reason for this having to do with fluctuations in lactation-related hormones. Unfortunately, I didn’t know that at the time and the anxiety was so bad that I had to lie down so I wouldn’t pass out (not exactly ideal when you have a newborn to tend to). People with anxiety are faced with many choices. During my daughter’s infancy, I chose to give up breastfeeding so that I could function more normally as a parent. I wasn’t thrilled, but given the information and resources I had at the time, I think it was the right decision.
 
Over the years, I’ve thought quite a lot about how my anxiety has affected my choices. For instance, I love to travel. But for a while there, I wasn’t sure I could fly again. On one flight, I spent the entire time in the air with my head pressed against the seat in front of me, struggling to regain control of my insane thoughts. And because I come from a long line of anxious women, there were moments when I resigned myself to my fate: a quiet life keeping my anxiety in check.
 
Fortunately, I crave adventure. As I get older, and my kids grow up, I realize that there are a million things I want to do, both on my own and with them. And as a writer, I need and want to have adventures. To experience new things that I can write about. To put myself out there in the world and see what happens. And in order to do that, I need to conquer my anxiety. Actually, I’m not sure I believe in “conquering” my anxiety as much as I believe that I must learn to work with it and around it. The truth is, I still experience anxiety daily. I have a whole arsenal of coping tools and I use them faithfully, but that doesn’t mean I don’t feel anxiety. I’ve just learned how to deal with it more effectively.
 
What I find interesting is that, the more I share about my experiences with anxiety, the more I hear similar stories. Anxiety is one of those conditions that makes you feel isolated and alone, and yet, it takes almost no time to find lots of kindred spirits in the fight against anxiety.
 
Feel free to share here. You (WE) are not alone. 

0 Comments



Leave a Reply.

    Author

    I'm generally pulled in a million different directions and I wouldn't trade it for the world. Here's a glimpse of my life - hope you enjoy it! And if there's a big lapse between posts, well, that's the way life goes in Amy's world. 

    Archives

    October 2022
    June 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    November 2016
    October 2016
    April 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    July 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    October 2014
    May 2013
    April 2013
    February 2013
    October 2012
    September 2012
    July 2012
    May 2012
    April 2012
    March 2012
    January 2012
    December 2011

    Categories

    All
    Alamogordo
    Alamogordo Live
    AlamogordoLive.net
    All The Broken People
    Amy
    Anxiety
    Atozchallenge
    Authors
    Best Laid Plans
    Book Reviews
    Books
    Business Adventure
    Career Goals
    Chick Lit
    Chick-lit
    #ChickLitLove
    Consulting
    Dixie Chicks
    Events
    Family
    Feelings
    Food
    Forensics
    Friends
    Giveaway
    Health Council
    Holidays
    Home Improvement
    Hot Pink Perspective
    Inn Of The Mountain Gods
    In The House
    Laurie Notaro
    Marketing
    Masters Degree
    Melissa Leigh Llc
    Michael Mcgarrity
    Music
    NCW
    New Release
    Nm Centennial
    On The Spot
    Parenting
    Posh
    Querying
    Recommendations
    Ruidoso
    Sane
    Short Story
    Supreme Court
    Suspense
    Theater
    Thrillers
    Vacation
    Wallflower Blooming
    #WhatsYourStory
    What's Your Story?
    Women's Fiction
    Writing
    YA

    RSS Feed


Copyright 2023 by Amy Rivers. All rights reserved. 
Proudly powered by Weebly
  • Home
  • BOOKS
    • Suspense / Thriller
    • Women's Fiction
    • Anthologies & Articles
  • NEWS & EVENTS
  • Blog
  • Contact