Personal Narrative: Dealing With Stress

Growing up with a father in the military, you move around a lot more than you would like to. I was born just east of St. Louis in a city called Shiloh in Illinois. When I was two years old my dad got the assignment to move to Hawaii. We spent seven great years in Hawaii, we had one of the greatest churches I have ever been to name New Hope. New Hope was a lot like Olivet's atmosphere, the people were always friendly and there always something to keep someone busy. I used to dance at church, I did hip-hop and interpretive dance, but you could never tell that from the way I look now.

That was the phrase that had been assaulting my ears for the last half an hour. Although it wasn’t odd that someone was telling me that specific phrase, this time it was different. My grandmother, whom I thought had understood my problems, had just proven to me that she actually didn’t. At the age of 12, I was heartbroken.

Over my years of school, one big influence on me has always been sports. Ever since a young age, I have always enjoyed playing and watching sports. In my four years in high school, I have fell in love with the sport of lacrosse.

I woke up and took one bite out of my pop tart but that one bite was all I could eat. My legs were shaking, and my heart was pounding. My dad told me, “It is a true honor to even make it this far so go out there and have some fun.” Once I heard this statement, I knew I was ready to go. I arrived at school and boarded the bus. The car ride was an hour and fifteen minutes of hearing the squeaking of the wheel on the bus. My teammates were getting their heads ready for the big game.

When I was a child, I moved around quite a bit. It became hard to get attached to places because we were never assured that the sacred spots would be ours for much longer. As I got older, however, I have realized that special places do not have to be dictated by a length of time, and allowing myself to fall in love with a place gave me the roots I had been searching for. While I have not lived in Indiana for several years now, there is something about this certain cluster of trees in Indiana that remain special to me. When I was a child, I saw them as the gateway into Narnia, and during the winter snows I would bundle up in my cheap fur coat my mother bought at a consignment shop and run outside searching for Mr. Tumnus and calling myself Lucy. My imagination gave me the ability to bring the characters I loved so dearly to life. This experience has shown me that providing children with the ability to use their imagination not only provides entertainment, but also allows children to have a safe outlet to cope with traumatic situations, make

Well, I would have to say you’re doing good job of hiding it because I don’t think anyone else knows besides me, and you have my word I won’t tell anyone. Can I ask you about it or is that a no zone? How are you feeling tonight? The reason why I told you about me is because that was the first time in a long time that I had a full-blown PTSD problem come up and I felt I needed to explain myself because I directed my anger out on you and I don’t want you think, I am someone who I am not. That day I hit a low point that came with consequences, but I believe I brushed myself off and moved past it for now.

My whole life, I had always thought that people reacted the same way I did in stressful situations, and the people around me experienced emotions and thoughts the same way. The realization that I overreacted and suffered immensely because of it made me feel isolated and seemed daunting, as if I would never understand or be able to fight the feeling of hopelessness that overwhelmed my system.

After the incident, there were multiple Acute Critical Stress Symptoms that have occurred. Upon discovering the hole on the fuel truck, I froze and slowly climbed down the truck, myself and the driver of the truck assumed that the mortar round was inside the truck (it turned out, the mortar round hit the tank and ricochet and hit the ground, leaving an 8 inches hole). I have been thinking about the incident and the what if scenario kept playing on my head. There were a great deal of questions, such as, exposing my team to danger, to include the considerable amount of what could have gone wrong that could have loss many lives that night. I woke up several times with a cold sweat, nightmares, difficulty sleeping and fear of event repetition.

Whenever I’m in a waiting room for something such as a doctor’s appointment, or a dentist's, I can’t help but be overcome by a sense of anxiety, even if I know for sure that all I’m there for is a simple check up. Perhaps it’s just the thought of all the worse things that I could have potentially gone there for, such as a shot that I would have to get on my arm, or in my mouth for some dental procedure. So when I sat in the waiting room of the orthodontist building where I was to get my wisdom teeth out, I felt terrified.

One source of stress is “Chronic Stress.” Chronic stress means stress that is experienced for an extended period. One example from my personal life that was a chronic stress was my family and work stress. I think family and work problems of my own example connect because they fell under the same category and correlated with each other. A specific example is my mom forced me to figure basic skills myself such as driving. I was in and out of jobs and found myself having to figure out how to get to work. I could not depend on anyone to take me anymore and the bus system was undependable. I did nor deal with it the way I wanted at the time. I had just finished up an internship and found an excellent job but found myself having to figure out how to get to work. My cognitive

I collapsed to the floor as my lungs shrunk two sizes and my tears couldn’t even be released due to my inability to breathe, let alone stand. This was my first real panic attack, and my body had succumbed to my mind. Backstage, just minutes before my first play, I began to think about all of the improvisation necessary for my role, and how I had to be in character continually (so as not to ruin the play for everyone else), and I couldn’t handle it. My lines had been erased from my mind, and my vision went blurry from tears and fear. Just then, two people had surrounded me, squatting to get on my level. Dizzy and ready to faint, my two best friends had helped me get a grip of reality again. They reminded

After reading your response I realized I was not completely clear on my point of view. I have noticed this before and am working on trying to be clearer when writing. I also am trying to find a balance when giving details with my explanations. It is a find balance that I am still learning, in the past I have gone off topic because of my detail or long explanations. This is something that I am constantly working on and is not easy. However, when I receive feedback like this one it helps me find the part of my journal that I need to fine tune. I appreciate the time you took to read and give a meaningful response and not just tell me you agree. Yes, I do like people agree with me because I am only human. But when I receive a response like your,

When I was younger I loved school more than anything, the only thing I was worried about was understanding fractions. I had nothing to worry about except disappointing my parents, my sister was a straight a student her whole life and my parents always held me up to that standard they did not mean to it’s just i knew i was smart and they knew but i couldn’t put in the effort. I did not know what it was called when i was younger but i had anxiety I still have it. Whenever i would talk or think about school i would have some version of an anxiety attack because as I got older it became the most stressful thing in my life. Then during my sophomore year a friend told me about IB they said it would make me a better student. I listened to them and

This might be a long post, but I've gotta tell how this product is changing my life in way I have truly been praying for!

In my 38 years of life, I’ve had to overcome plenty of obstacles. When examining my life, especially in my younger years, it showed me life consists of an assortment of minor and major obstacles. Facing an obstacle, especially a major one, and conquering it, awards me a triumphant feeling. Furthermore, this feeling did provide me with determination, willpower, and courage to take on any future obstacles that life can throw at me (Harrington, 2012). This makes minor obstacles to become like a cake walk.