Tips for stress

First off, I congratulate you on your ambition to become a nurse. You guys are heroes. I'm going to try my best to give you real advice instead of just pointless preaching. You know that worrying isn't going to help your family members. In fact, it may even affect them negatively, because you are weakening yourself out by worrying and cannot offer them as much support!

I think that distracting yourself can work well. Just tell yourself "there's nothing I can do" and try to think of something else or change the subject. It's hard, but it gets easier with practice. Also, you of course have to deal with it and not just repress, so I think it would be helpful to talk to trusted people or maybe even a therapist. After all, you don't have to be mentally ill to see a therapist. You can talk about it, or journal about it and get it all down on paper. The paper remembers so your mind can forget.

Just a few possibilities. I hope it helps! Hang in there, dear.

Yeah like the person above-talking to a therapist or trusted people is good, and writing definitely helps. Personally when I'm stressed I write everything down and just try to deal with each individual thing one by one. When you condense everything into words its easier to deal. I really hope it goes well though. Good luck.

I'm sorry to say, but if he does have this disease there is nothing you can do to help him. If he does, be there for him. If not, celebrate his health. In either circumstance, you cannot control the outcome. You can only move forward in your life through your schooling and your career. Dwelling on things you can't control will only leave you burnt out in the end.Hang in there...

Often times, many people will say to someone in your situation, "There is nothing you can do, so stop worrying." While these folks may have the best intentions trying to impart some sort of knowledge they assume you don't know of yet, it seems pretty obvious, right? You cannot do anything about ALS or any disease that strikes a family member - but it still causes worry and unneeded stress which can wreak havoc not only on your mind but on your physical health as well.

I'm not a HUGE proponent of self-help books because many of them are pretty obvious. Sometimes self-help books are so obvious, you can actually feel the money disappearing from your pocket for no reason at all. I'm going to recommend 'The Power of Now' to you in the hopes that this book will do for you what it did for me.

Forget the tired phrases 'one day at a time' - and really live second-to-second. What's happening around you right now that you can control? Is everything fine? Then relax. I recommend learning meditation techniques so that your mind is not running wild with 'what ifs' and 'this might happen'.

Stress is inevitable, but you can act as gatekeeper over what you can control and what you cannot. The only cliche I'd like to offer is that it's always darkest before the dawn. I believe you'll find something helpful for you to exercise these feelings and manage them in a healthy way.

Link to The Power of Now: The Power of Now