Christmas physical stress!

[Galwaygirl]

Hello! Did anyone find the run up to Christmas so stressful that their health suffered! The busyness, the running around, the organising, working, tidying the house, visitors, going places, keeping family happy, keeping children happy. I checked blood pressure at one stage, it was 155/100.

Madness! The pressure we put on ourselves!

Me! I work too over Xmas as I'm a nurse. The stress has made me ill, my entire body hurts and my brain is barely functioning. You can't even call in sick without serious repercussions in my job role. Roll on January when it's all over and the kids are back at school.

I have had Christmases like that. The pressure to make everything "perfect" for others while no one seems to help or give a dam about you. Im sorry you are experiencing that.

However this year, I was working Xmas day and the pressure was off. Consequently, I had a great day.

Not really because I reorganised things to be slower and more manageable.

Having my mother stay for a week however has left me sore and aching!

“Madness! The pressure we put on ourselves!”

Well it’s madness the pressure that you put on yourself. You actually checked your blood pressure?! Or is it something you have to monitor anyway? What are you going to do differently next year?

I'm a nurse and worked right up to Christmas eve and then back on boxing day. We were so short staffed 2 nurses who were certified off sick from their doctor came in to help out, there was a monitor in our clinic and I just checked it! I work in the community so I was battling with the Christmas shoppers, traffic and that put extra pressure on! A house call that would take 5 minutes to get to was taking 45 minutes!

Yes, I actually lost some weight pre Christmas Day as felt anxious and had no appetite.

Did you check your BP after rushing around? You're meant to give yourself a few minutes to relax.

That does sound quite mad. This year I followed the organised mum Christmas plan so was basically done by 1st December. Highly recommend it, although it won't do much to help with the shitty conditions, piss poor management and chronic underfunding of public services.

This year I decided to do absolutely nothing. I didn't get a tree, I didn't make a special dinner and we didn't travel to see family. It was just my son and I, and we exchanged a couple of simple presents and played strategy games on Christmas Day. Then we cooked together in the evening and watched a few films.

We both agreed this was the best Christmas ever!