Making poor choices when stressed

[Piccalilyofthevalley]

I’ve started looking for another job because quite frankly they treat us like shit. I don’t know when this started, it used to be a lovely place to work, but everyday gets worse. I want to leave but the hours (p/t) suit family life.

So, example of yesterday. Had a really stressful day at work, short staffed, spiteful customer wrote in about me (didn’t get what they wanted out of our conversation), public transport was up the creek so I missed going to my 1 out of work joyous activity per week that I do. I had my DS with me who had to wait for me after school, so we went out for dinner, still no transport, got a taxi (£££), came home, felt stressed and miserable and had 1/2 bottle of shitty wine (was doing dry Jan, no alcohol in house) that I use for cooking, fell asleep on sofa, DC15 woke saddo mum up to go to bed. Now got a hangover and I’m off for a few days and in a bad mood.

So, when stressed I let it get to me, make poor food and drink choices, and I let it ruin my days off thinking about it and I don’t get things done.

Help!

How can I make better choices?

First off, recognise that you got through the day - maybe not in the way you would have wanted and, if you had the luxury of a Groundhog day (just the one!) you would have done lots of things differently second time around - but no matter, you survived it.

Secondly, stop with the bad mood. It won't change anything about what happened yesterday but it will allow the events to fester and grow in your mind and will fuck up today and the rest of your days off. What's the point of that?

Looking at what happened, the only thing that you could possibly have changed was 1/2 a bottle of wine. Not exactly up there with Vlad the Impaler in terms of lack of moral fibre is it?

As an aside I'm running a three day FB challenge of not saying anything bad about anyone else, including (especially!) yourself from Friday 9am to Sunday 11pm - I deliberately avoided inauguration day as no-one is that saintly! Why don't you give it a try??

Just put it down to a bad day and start again today.

You can't help things outside of your control like the lack of transport etc

You just had a bad day OP we all have them.

And 1/2 bottle of wine after a bad day really isn’t the end of the world.

Unless there is more to this?

Yes, it was a bad day. I seem to be having many bad days though and it all seems to stem from my job, and dealing with people (work customers, family, bitchy friends).

I need a better way to deal with stress.

Don't forget that stress doesn't exist as an entity in itself; it is an emotional reaction to what's happening around you. So you could go nuclear and leave the job, ditch the friends (if they are bitchy that's not such a bad idea) and even go NC with your family but that's just removing the current triggers.

Exercise of any sort is always good for stress - can you fit it into your schedule?

This video is good for learning how to reduce the emotional temperature when you're about to blow;