Over the years I have come to realise that thinking does not do me any good. I’m not really sure that it does anybody any good. Over thinking doesn’t anyway. Over thinking just sends your mind around in circles and it never ever ever ends. There’s so many things in life to over think and worry about. Over the years my anxieties have changed. It used to be about work and worrying about whether I was doing my job well enough. Then when my sight got worse I was constantly over thinking about the past and the life I used to have. Then after my time in hospital I was replaying it in my mind almost constantly for about a year. It didn’t start to fade until I started to rebuild my life and distract myself. When I created new things to think about. This helped me to realise that distraction is a really powerful tool. One that I now use a lot.

If I let myself, I can over think a lot. I am sometimes anxious about going out, anxious about what I have said to people, I worry about whether people are really ok or if they are just saying it, I worry when people don’t reply to messages. I do try not to do that with messages because everybody has their own lives to lead and bigger priorities, but I can’t always help it. Especially if I am worried about them or something I have said. I worry about whether people I care about are safe and as soon as I get one tiny bit of doubt in my mind, it gets bigger and bigger and I can’t shake it off.

More recently my anxieties have been related to my post traumatic stress disorder and the therapy I have been having. The start of a new relationship happened just at the right time. This meant that I had the space and time to concentrate on my therapy, but I had an exciting new distraction so that I didn’t start dwelling on things.

Distraction works brilliantly when I am nervous about something that I know is going to happen. If I am anxious about a reply from somebody, or a phone call that is coming, or an appointment or test. I keep myself busy and keep my mind focused on other things. Because there really is no point in letting my mind go round in circles, because it won’t change the outcome and it won’t make things happen any quicker. In my opinion, distraction is an important way of improving your mental wellbeing.

xx ❤ xx