Going through old email, saw this. Yes health & anxiety are related. Not just related, causal in both directions. Somewhat counter-culturally, my opinion is that the health issues (ie unnatural food and microbiome) are causing the anxiety mostly. At least, my experience was that when I started eating primarily fat and protein my anxiety disappeared, I became happier and calmer than ever before, and my insomnia went away. Like, totally away. Gone. Add in fermented foods everyday and that's even better. Once again, the microbes are in control! We have to outsmart them. The bad ones at least. And all this happened while going through menopause. So anxiety and insomnia and roller-coaster emotions are not result of going through menopause. They are result of health issues. They are health issues. Because after all, the brain is part of the body! And this is true for kids as well as adults as well as women in our 50's!
I thought I replied to this but I guess not - I agree with you that gut health/diet are probably huge in a lot of mental health issues and I'm more convinced of it as I see the link between depression, anxiety and blood sugar issues. I remember feeling really, really good when I did a Whole30 diet but man is that a hard one to stick to :)
I'm sorry about the job chaos and disappointment. I know so many people going through the same, my family included. I actually had a bit of a burnout this winter. I started a part-time masters in September, and keeping up my job plus being the primary parent for after-school/Wednesdays/vacation days (of which there are many in France) just burned me out. So I decided to stop working. Then, just when my husband was feeling quite good about the startup he's been working for the past three years, they lost their funding. So, it's a rocky season over here too. On the positive side, I've actually gotten one and maybe two small jobs doing the kind of work I actually want to do, and the startup might still make it, and my husband has his old job to fall back on (France...), so we're going to be okay. Also, healthcare not linked to jobs! And that's a good thing, because there might be some underlying medical conditions that would explain the extreme fatigue I've struggled with this year, and I'm going in for a big battery of tests when I get back from a month in the US with my daughter in June. And yeah, I would not be coming to the USA right now if I didn't have two brothers getting married....
oh man, you are in a rough time too. Startups are in such a crazy space right now - you're not the first person who's talked to me about the rollercoaster of funding. And yay for finding jobs you like and that your healthcare isn't tied to work (the dream...). Hope your trip back to the US goes well and you get some health answers too.
I'm so sorry to hear about TJ ! And the 3am wake ups are definitely anxiety . I used to struggle with that a lot of that back when I worked in corporate. And like other people mentioned in the comments, I never even knew it was anxiety!
I'm up at 3 am almost every other night now because... Third trimester! We have a lot of end of year deadlines and ceremonies to attend this time around and with these crazy temperatures (we're almost touching 50 degrees celsius in May!) I'm not looking forward to having both kids home at summer and a newborn!
Whoa, how did you get to 3rd trimester already?! Wishing you all the best! And OMG we both live in hot places but 50C is crazy! We had a whole month over 110F last summer but I don't think we ever hit 120F! That is a milestone I hope we don't achieve, lol.
I love that we all had anxiety and didn't realize it. I hope our kids' generation is smarter about it as they seem to be more open to talking about mental health.
I can relate to all of this. Now trying to figure out how to live the latter half of my life given all the constraints on it. Trying to make conscious choices. Trying not to give up on health. And, above all, trying not to succumb to distractions to try to escape the anxiety and the pain of living. Sending love to you and TJ.
YES! The distractions are so tempting. I'm so happy to have given up social media, except for Reddit. Hugs to you too, and we should figure out how to get together!
Sorry to hear about TJ being laid off. When you say he was planning to retire soon, what does soon look like? Months? A few years? I laughed at your comment about health insurance tied to jobs because YES!
I also think the 3am wake-up might be tied to perimenopause. A friend said she wakes up and then because she’s awake, the thoughts start crowding in. ☺️
The first time I saw a therapist back in 2009, she asked questions about anxiety when we were doing the intake session. I kept saying no, until suddenly a lightbulb went on in my head. “Wait, do you mean do I worry about everything all the time? If that’s anxiety, then yes, I definitely have that.” 😂
haha, yes, that underlying feeling of dread. I remember reading something about kids having anxiety over specific things happening or events coming up so somehow I internalized that as the definition of anxiety, not this vague sense of overall worry.
But hope you and TJ sort things out career-wise or retirement-wise soon because these things do cause stress!
Going through old email, saw this. Yes health & anxiety are related. Not just related, causal in both directions. Somewhat counter-culturally, my opinion is that the health issues (ie unnatural food and microbiome) are causing the anxiety mostly. At least, my experience was that when I started eating primarily fat and protein my anxiety disappeared, I became happier and calmer than ever before, and my insomnia went away. Like, totally away. Gone. Add in fermented foods everyday and that's even better. Once again, the microbes are in control! We have to outsmart them. The bad ones at least. And all this happened while going through menopause. So anxiety and insomnia and roller-coaster emotions are not result of going through menopause. They are result of health issues. They are health issues. Because after all, the brain is part of the body! And this is true for kids as well as adults as well as women in our 50's!
I thought I replied to this but I guess not - I agree with you that gut health/diet are probably huge in a lot of mental health issues and I'm more convinced of it as I see the link between depression, anxiety and blood sugar issues. I remember feeling really, really good when I did a Whole30 diet but man is that a hard one to stick to :)
I'm sorry about the job chaos and disappointment. I know so many people going through the same, my family included. I actually had a bit of a burnout this winter. I started a part-time masters in September, and keeping up my job plus being the primary parent for after-school/Wednesdays/vacation days (of which there are many in France) just burned me out. So I decided to stop working. Then, just when my husband was feeling quite good about the startup he's been working for the past three years, they lost their funding. So, it's a rocky season over here too. On the positive side, I've actually gotten one and maybe two small jobs doing the kind of work I actually want to do, and the startup might still make it, and my husband has his old job to fall back on (France...), so we're going to be okay. Also, healthcare not linked to jobs! And that's a good thing, because there might be some underlying medical conditions that would explain the extreme fatigue I've struggled with this year, and I'm going in for a big battery of tests when I get back from a month in the US with my daughter in June. And yeah, I would not be coming to the USA right now if I didn't have two brothers getting married....
oh man, you are in a rough time too. Startups are in such a crazy space right now - you're not the first person who's talked to me about the rollercoaster of funding. And yay for finding jobs you like and that your healthcare isn't tied to work (the dream...). Hope your trip back to the US goes well and you get some health answers too.
I'm so sorry to hear about TJ ! And the 3am wake ups are definitely anxiety . I used to struggle with that a lot of that back when I worked in corporate. And like other people mentioned in the comments, I never even knew it was anxiety!
I'm up at 3 am almost every other night now because... Third trimester! We have a lot of end of year deadlines and ceremonies to attend this time around and with these crazy temperatures (we're almost touching 50 degrees celsius in May!) I'm not looking forward to having both kids home at summer and a newborn!
Whoa, how did you get to 3rd trimester already?! Wishing you all the best! And OMG we both live in hot places but 50C is crazy! We had a whole month over 110F last summer but I don't think we ever hit 120F! That is a milestone I hope we don't achieve, lol.
I love that we all had anxiety and didn't realize it. I hope our kids' generation is smarter about it as they seem to be more open to talking about mental health.
I can relate to all of this. Now trying to figure out how to live the latter half of my life given all the constraints on it. Trying to make conscious choices. Trying not to give up on health. And, above all, trying not to succumb to distractions to try to escape the anxiety and the pain of living. Sending love to you and TJ.
YES! The distractions are so tempting. I'm so happy to have given up social media, except for Reddit. Hugs to you too, and we should figure out how to get together!
Sorry to hear about TJ being laid off. When you say he was planning to retire soon, what does soon look like? Months? A few years? I laughed at your comment about health insurance tied to jobs because YES!
I also think the 3am wake-up might be tied to perimenopause. A friend said she wakes up and then because she’s awake, the thoughts start crowding in. ☺️
Wishing you good sleep. 💤
Original retirement plan was 2027 so a couple of years, but we can make this work, or try to go back to work in some capacity.
I suspect that might be true about perimenopause too, though my sleep has been crap since having kids :( I used to sleep like a rock.
The first time I saw a therapist back in 2009, she asked questions about anxiety when we were doing the intake session. I kept saying no, until suddenly a lightbulb went on in my head. “Wait, do you mean do I worry about everything all the time? If that’s anxiety, then yes, I definitely have that.” 😂
haha, yes, that underlying feeling of dread. I remember reading something about kids having anxiety over specific things happening or events coming up so somehow I internalized that as the definition of anxiety, not this vague sense of overall worry.
I’ll be your other news junkie if you need any details. I can’t help myself.
I appreciate that :)