Some Days There Can be a Lot of Negativity

Recently I’ve written a few posts about the importance of being positive about life. It’s a bit ironic as this all comes at a time when I’ve hit a bit of a negative patch. At the moment everywhere I look there can be signs of negativity; the world feels like a much more hostile place than it did a week ago. All these feelings don’t worry me too much though; I’m treating it like a flu that just has to be dealt with.

There are some good reasons why I’m feeling a lot of negativity at the moment. My son has been sick with an ear infection for about a week and he has experienced a lot of pain at times. This is our first child and it is all very stressful and worrying. It has also meant that we haven’t got much sleep because he isn’t sleeping and we need to keep an eye on him when he has fevers – he previously had a seizure brought on by a high temperature. All this means that I’m getting more and more tired.

The fact that I’m so tired means that everything is a lot harder to deal with and I’m far more sensitive. My skin is thinner and something that would have amused me on good day can now feel like a personal attack. The fact that I’m so tired means that it is hard to exercise and this further affects my mood – I spend a lot of the day sitting at the computer and exercise gives me a welcome break. I’m tired and this makes work harder and more frustrating – added pressure. One negative thing is piling onto another and it can feel tough. It can seem that when you’re down that life can keep piling on the problems.

The reality of my current situation is that the world hasn’t changed but only my perception of it has. This all means that I need to be careful; I could easily make things worse. Because of my current mood it is easy for me to say the wrong thing or snap at my wife. We only have about two arguments a year but it is always when I’m going through something like this. My usual response to pressure like this is to become withdrawn into my mind; I’m not fun to be around at times like this.

Despite my current period of negativity I’m not too bothered by it; this is all part of life. When I was a drunk this would be my reality; I saw negativity as a problem with the world and not coming from my perception. My current mood will improve over the next few days. My son is getting better and last night I managed a bit more sleep. The important thing is that I stay focused on what is really happening and don’t allow my negativity to drag me into further negativity that I can avoid. Knowing that these negative patches are only temporary has been my greatest discovery in recovery from addiction; it makes them easy to manage. I have also found that usually following this low points in life come great highs.