How Do You Handle The Things Inside Your Head?

With the recent terrible news about Robin Williams, there's a lot of talk about depression and mental illness. It brings up a pretty valid question, how do you handle the things inside your head?

I have no medical background, I've never been diagnosed with any type of mental illness. I just have experience as a human.

We all go through different emotions as we walk through life. Some days we're happy, other's we're sad, sometimes we're excited and other times we're indifferent.

Usually all is well until one of the negative emotions takes over and starts to rule us. How do you handle yourself when that happens?

One of my best friends is anxiety! Not really, but I tend to get anxious quite a bit. Usually it starts with feeling overwhelmed, then worry sets in and I can't let it go. BOOM anxiety! 99% of people reading this didn't need that explanation, we've all been anxious at some point.

One side effect of anxiety for me is weight gain. When I start getting anxious I turn to my good friends at the closest fast food restaurant, nothing like a big greasy burger to get my mind off the things that I'm obsessing over! Mmm carbs!

That's the way I use to deal with it.

Now, I make a list every morning. I have one in my pocket right now. I list out everything I want/ need to do during the day, and I do it. Baby steps through the day. It includes a breakdown of what I need to do at work, when I get home from work, at the gym, etc. It's all out of my head, and on the paper. It simplifies my day to day, the feeling of being overwhelmed goes away. Instead of worrying, I focus, and that gets dangerous (in a good way).

Yeah, I slip every so often and it probably shows. If I hit the buffet more than once a week that's usually a pretty good sign anxiety has taken over!

One of the best feelings in the evening is to look at this list that's been in my pocket all day, and see a check mark next to each task of my day that I defeated.

Simple solution to some not so simple worries.

How do you deal with yourself when a negative emotion takes over?