by Carolyn Thomas   ❤️   Heart Sisters (on Blue Sky)

I’ve been sleeping poorly lately. I think I have an ice pick headache coming on. I can’t seem to concentrate. I feel utterly overwhelmed. I cried off and on for an entire day last week. I am clearly distressed. 

I recognize this distress because I’ve experienced a similar response in the past – like surviving a misdiagnosed “widow maker” heart attack back in 2008, for example. That was pretty darned distressing.  The National Institutes of Health describe distress as “emotional, social, spiritual, or physical pain, or suffering that may cause a person to feel that they are not able to manage or cope with overwhelming changes caused by normal life activities or a serious medical diagnosis.”  Those are almost exactly the words I said to a friend just this past week when I was wailing into the phone about my new breast cancer diagnosis: “I just don’t think I am able to get through this!”   (You can read more about my breast cancer experiences in these posts).

Enter the Distress Thermometer:
Continue reading “Where are you on the Distress Thermometer?” →