You know that feeling you get when it seems like the entire world is out to get you? Your internet crashes right before you were about to submit a paper, your best friend isn't talking to you, you forgot to eat lunch and on top of it all, it's a Monday.
It's all happening at once and you don't know what to do so you turn to someone for support. You feel confident they will help you and then they mutter one simple word, "relax."
Suddenly it gets worse.
You already felt overwhelmed and hearing that one word just pushed you over the edge. It's not that simple, is it? You're trying. Why don't they see that you're trying?
Telling me to "relax" overwhelms me more. I start to think I'm overreacting, I start to think that I'm the problem, and I start to question everything that I'm doing. Am I doing too much? Am I causing problems that don't need to begin in the first place? Is everything my fault?
The reality is that I'm not doing anything wrong. I'm simply going about my day and things just aren't going my way. But in my mind, it is my fault I start to think I was being dramatic and I then I start to apologize. I don't really know why I do this, but it's just what happens.
Being told to relax tells me that my emotions were unjustified, it makes me feel like all the things that are tearing me down are dumb.
For that moment — when I feel like the entire universe is out to get me — hearing "relax" just adds insult to injury and shakes me to just about my breaking point. It's nobody's fault that I think this way. It's just what happens, it's how I'm wired. But please take this as a lesson. Not everyone thinks the same way you do, not everyone can just be talked out of a situation and sometimes we react differently than others do. But all of that is OK.
Just please don't tell me to relax, because I can promise you, that will be the last thing I do.
