(no subject)

[elizabeth]

Record-keeping: the past few weeks have been so bad, in terms of anxiety, especially at work, that I was, this past Monday, looking at websites about voluntary psych admission to a local hospital. Fortunately, that particular spike abated, and I talked to my HR person and am taking a few days off, and actively looking for other jobs — there's a lot I like about my current employment, but there are some things which are....not good for me — and rebudgeting to take the student loan issue which cropped up yesterday into account, and generally holding myself together with spit and duct tape. My apartment is a fucking disaster, my wrist RSI is acting up like a motherfucker, I found a new therapist in DC and now have to spend a lot of time and money establishing a good relationship with her, everything in my fridge is spoiling way faster than it should and I can't figure out why, and basically I would like a personal grownup to shove in front of me to take the brunt of the slings and arrows. The end.

Comments

[ghoti]

Have you checked the coldness dial in the fridge? It might be set too warmly. If you have already done that, I might call the landlord-person to get a maintenance request going.

[synecdochic]

I cannot be a personal grownup, but I can offer some suggestions!

I was going to suggest turning up the coldness in the fridge, too! (I keep our fridge set at "one step above freezing the milk" cold.) If the fridge is very empty, that can sometimes cause problems with chilling evenly, too; try filling some empty 2L soda bottles with water and putting them in the back of the fridge. We keep a calibrated fridge thermometer in ours (Sarah pinched it from work when the calibration certificate expired -- doesn't mean it's not valid anymore, just that it doesn't meet ISO standards) to make sure it's chilling properly; if you keep having problems maybe pick one up (they're usually like $10 or so) and take regular readings, which you can bring to your landlord and say "hey, look, the fridge is not fridging, please replace".

Wrist RSI: are you sleeping in hand braces? You do more damage to your hands while you're asleep than you do in a full day of typing. If you don't have a pair of braces, let me know, I'll buy you some. I posted a bunch of other RSI prevention tips that might give you a few ideas of how you can change your work habits (even just changing the height of your keyboard and starting up the stretching every 30 minutes would probably help a ton). Also, Tiger Balm. Tiger Balm is a miracle. (Get the white, not the red; it's slightly less powerful but the red stains everything it so much as looks at.)

I do not have much to suggest when it comes to student loan issues, unfortunately :( But if you need a research monkey, email me?

Apartment being a disaster: can you call someone in to do a one-time cleaning and dusting and stuff? They won't be able to do the picking-up, but they can at least do the dusting, vaccuuming, windows, kitchen scrubbing, etc. I imagine a lot of us would be willing to chip in like $5 and $10 to get you a few hours of time from somebody to come in and do the basics. That might help you feel less anxious when you're at home.

Do you have a GP you can call and say "I'm having anxiety problems, can you give me something to take as-needed when the anxiety spikes get really awful since I'm still building up a good relationship with my new therapist"?

If you have anything else that's really bugging you that you'd like suggestions on, just holler! (And if this is the annoying kind of suggestion instead of the helpful kind, feel free to completely ignore it.)

*love*