Designated Doodler

Okay so all over the internet - and in real life - people are freaking out! Whether it's about finals or Christmas or a mysterious flu-like disease that's killing people in North Houston... the freaking out doesn't need to happen. If you are currently freaked out, or feel as though you will be in the near future, read this quick guide: 1) Odds are that you're thinking too much. Take a minute to shift your focus. Watch an episode on TV, have a mug of Sleepy Time tea, doodle a dragon in your notebook. The more you focus on your freaking out - the worse it's only going to get - so focus on something else. 2) If you can fix what you're freaking out about, do it! If you're worried that you're ill-prepared for a final, go study some more! If you're freaked out about a party you're hosting, plan it out! Maybe the better prepared you are, the less you'll flip your lid. 3) If you're having an existential crisis, please dial 9 now. Just kiddi...

I felt inspired to write this post today to help anyone out there who knows/is friends with/is a parent of someone with anxiety. I realized today that these things I know aren't just common sense. They've come from years of dealing with anxiety myself and knowing others who have as well. So here it goes. Things to keep in mind about anxiety: Anxiety isn't as easy to control as you might think I've had people ask me in the past "well, why don't you just stop being anxious." To me, that's like asking someone who has chronic migraines to stop having migraines. What's important is to realize that anxiety is very much a physical thing. It is a response that your body has, when once started, is difficult to control or stop. An anxious person may have a racing heartbeat, sweaty hands, dry mouth, or even shake. Once the body begins this descent into anxiety it's hard to turn around. And even if the anxiety isn't yet to that point or severi...

This morning I woke up at eight something, so much for sleeping in late. I laid there in my pink plaid pajama bottoms and pink TCU hoodie, wrapped in a sea of green sheets. I rested my hand on my chest and felt my heartbeat through both layers of clothing. It beat fast, as usual. And I continued laying there, relishing the fact that I didn't have to be anywhere. My obnoxiously squeaky bed screeched in protest as I got up and opened my blinds. This was going to be a day of errands, artwork and reading my media law book. But no matter what exactly I'm doing the realization that I'm nearly half-done with my last year of college is never far from my thoughts. There are so many possible directions for my life to take post-college that it's mind boggling. Haha, that reminds me of last night when I got caught up on an episode of Community I had missed. Ahbed and Troy had a housewarming party and Jeff created six parallel timelines by rolling a die to see who had to go answer t...

On nights like this, I wish I had someone I could run to. Someone I could fall apart to. Someone who would wrap me in his arms and not even try to convince me everything would be okay, because he was smart enough to know that it wouldn’t be. But who would sit there in the silence with me. “Is there a cure?” is one of the first things people ask when you tell them your father has cancer. And I hate the answer. I had a nightmare last night, one part of which involved me knowing that I was only going to live for one more day. Can you imagine that? Can you imagine what it must feel like to not be certain that you’d be around tomorrow? I experienced that feeling in a dream, for a brief amount of time. And it was an awful feeling. Yet, every night when my Dad goes to bed, he’s not sure if he’ll wake up the next day. And as I sit here with burning eyes, the most painful throbbing in my head and that familiar ache in my chest, it breaks my heart to think of how my Dad must feel. Occasionally h...