Overwhelmed by literally everything, not sure how to cope with anything anymore

[GeorgieTheGorgeousGoat]

GAD has sent me spiralling. I’m finding it difficult to see the wood for the trees at the moment. My ‘to do’ list is giving me palpitations just looking at it but I have so much to do. House chores, work, self care, diet, organisation, kids etc. Work is the worst one at the moment. I’m self employed and find it hard to stay disciplined.

Dh is at work today and I have lots to do, I wrote myself a plan last night to get everything done today but there’s so much on it that I’m falling behind already. I just want to curl up and make it all go away. My body hurts, physically hurts. I don’t know how to make it stop. I’ve been offered medication but the side effects were unbearable.

I've no experience with GAD so hopefully someone more useful will reply.

In the meantime, I am very very lazy and a champion procrastinator - at least olympian level. I break down tasks to their smallest level, and say to myself i'll just do that bit; or I'll say I'll just do 5 mins worth (which leaves me 23h55m to do nothing in! ) and see how it goes. Nine times out of 10, I'll finish it - but I've given myself permission not to.

So, pick something small, just make a start/do 5 mins. You can stop any time.

Good luck!

(I should be loading car for the tip and buying pet food...)

Thank you for your message. I’m feeling a bit better this evening, I’ve had a lovely long bath and a bit of pampering.

I’ve also realised that rather than one long to do list where I don’t know where to begin, you were right about breaking it down in to much smaller projects. Friday is supposed to be my paperwork day and yet I don’t, I faff about doing everything else but. So I’ve used an app to give the next 4 weeks a short list of things I have to do, the most important things. Then I reevaluate in a month.

I hope it works. My sleep is atrocious caused by worry at the moment and I don’t think this helps my mood and thoughts.

Thanks again

I've got a ridiculous amount of things to do at work and can easily let it overwhelm me. A good strategy I learned from my old boss which I'm using now is to put jobs into my outlook diary. Then I get a reminder to do it and a time to do it in. I'm two weeks into a massive four week deadline, and so far I'm in track because of this - and I don't feel so overwhelmed because I know I've already worked out how to meet the deadline. Maybe you could do similar - mixing the work priorities with the self-care priorities, and also asking those around you for some help? Oh, and ditching the cleaning / jobs that really won't make the world stop if you don't do them. Right now your health is more important than cleaning etc. I hope you feel stronger soon.

That’s very sensible advice and I’ll certainly be keen to do similar. I do put myself under a lot of pressure but I’m a massive procrastinator and avoided. My therapist said it was because I was a perfectionist!

I don’t know about that but it certainly rang true that unless I think I will succeed, then I don’t bother with things. My family are good at pitching in to help but need telling all the time. The kids are pretty good as they go, but we’re all naturally messy which doesn’t help my mental health.

Bit by bit, slowly but surely. Fingers crossed.