Do you go for a walk? Do you have one of those little blow up toys that you can punch in the face? Do you scream at anyone who ventures into your air space? Do you drink a cup of chamomile tea, write in your journal, and concentrate on whatever event will eventually mark the end of your stressful situation?

For me: yes, all of the above. Plus I eat carrot sticks, lots of them.

-- Anonymous, December 28, 1999

Answers

All of the above, plus lots of crying usually.

-- Anonymous, December 28, 1999

I cry too. And snap at my husband. I'm starting to get better, though. Last time I had to work late, I rewarded myself with sushi brought up from the restaurant below my office. Baths make good rewards too. So does taking a break with a trashy magazine.

-- Anonymous, December 28, 1999

When I'm stressed I: cry, mope, and snap at everyone. I also can't sleep. During those times I pamper myself if possible. I'll buy flowers for my office. I try to get a massage every now and then. I drink chamomile tea--or valerian tea if I really can't sleep--before I go to bed. During my most stressful periods, I take ginseng, which helps me physically handle the stress (somehow it helps take away that gritty feeling your body gets) and it helps keep me alert and focused.

-- Anonymous, December 28, 1999

I go to bed with earplugs in my ears and pull the covers up over my head (but sometimes can't sleep anyway). Or I eat too much, then go to bed, in a carbo coma. Of course, I can't really do any of this until the stressful day is over. Most of my stress is non-work-related though. My job is pretty easy-going at this point. It's the f-ing Muni (and our f-ing mayor) and my noisy, inconsiderate, moronic dipshit neighbors that give me the most stress, and there's not much I can do about either one of them. It was *that* kind of night and *that* kind of morning, so I was exhausted before I ever got to work. At least about 80% of the office is out on vacation this week though, so it's very quiet here, and this is a Very Good Thing. :)

-- Anonymous, December 28, 1999

When I get all stressed out I play Sega or GameBoy. Yes, I'm nearly 29 years old and I just got a Gameboy for Christmas. Donkey Kong got rid of a lot of Christmas stress.

And I leave my work stress at work. When I walk out the door I leave it there.

Playing with the dogs and getting wet sloppy kisses from them helps the stress level too.

And sometimes, I'm just a snappy bitch at everyone in my sight and Dave tells me to chill out and play some Sega.

-- Anonymous, December 28, 1999

I get a major case of potty-mouth, and swear loudly and at great length at everyone around me, but mostly Fred and the cats. I also swear to myself, calling everyone in existence names in a low voice. This *has* to happen, or I can't move onto the next step, which is to shrug and say "Whatever" and deal with whatever's stressing me out.

http://www.bitchypoo.com/bitchypoo.html

-- Anonymous, December 28, 1999

I lash out at others.

Then I try to meditate or go for a quiet walk or do something to calm myself down.

If I can get organized about what I need to do, right now, it helps to start doing that and stay focussed on one task. Of course the nature of stress is that you have sixteen other tasks that need to be done now, and you keep getting phone calls and other interruptions which of course leads to more stress.

-- Anonymous, December 28, 1999

I go to Borders.

-- Anonymous, December 28, 1999

Computer games, food, or home-brew, whichever is available.

-- Anonymous, December 28, 1999

if it goes into pure overload, i tend to blank out. it's a bit odd. it's like, my brain just freezes right up. i don't think at all. i don't pay attention to what anyone says, i just *stop* completely.

if it's just stress, like i'm at work and things are really busy and it's go go go - i tend to thrive on it.

when it reaches that spot, that point, right before overload - that's when i get... a little snippy. sometimes i just ignore it and swallow tension, and of course that's bad and it makes the overload thing happen. but if i catch it, if i recognize this point, i get in my car and drive somewhere. doesn't matter where, as long as there is load aggressive music on, and there are spots i can go very very fast.

then i snap back to the thriving part. and it starts all over :)

-- Anonymous, December 28, 1999

I tell myself sad stories on the train going home from work and make myself cry (see my entry in the "I am a freak" thread). I get really, really uptight about petty details that don't matter, complain to my co-workers about each other, and generally make myself unbearable. Since I am always under stress -- private attorneys do NOT usually bill in quarter-hour increments, Beth -- I am a pretty difficult person to deal with. This is probably why I have about three friends and spend more time posting on this forum than I do with anyone else.

Can you tell that it's evening and I'm stuck in the office doing another completely f*cking pointless assigment calculated to do nothing except earn my employer a Caribbean vacation? Let me tell you about the creeps who work in this office. And another thing . . .

-- Anonymous, December 28, 1999

I get mean and take it out on Stuart. Poor guy.

-- Anonymous, December 28, 1999

Well I get mean and then in a fit of guilt I cry. Or sometimes I just pass go and head directly to the tears.

-- Anonymous, December 28, 1999

Well french fries are always good, or knocking back a beer or two. Or I find a quiet independent bookstore and lose myself for an hour. Petting a kitty or a neighborhood dog helps, too

-- Anonymous, December 29, 1999

i get mad or i cry, generally. it almost depends on where i am. if i'm at home, i take it out on poor tim, who deserves to be sainted for all the times i've screamed at him in fits of frustration. if i'm at school, i either start crying right away, or i wander over to the other side of campus where i'm bound to find some friends home, and bitch to and at them until i wear myself out and start crying. so you see, it all begins and ends with the tears.

-- Anonymous, December 29, 1999

All of the above...plus I follow my poor cat around and annoy her, and mope at my husband. Chamomile tea works great, though.

Incidentally, Beth, your site has never ever made my MSIE crash. So maybe it isn't a problem with the site, maybe it's other folks compute

-- Anonymous, December 29, 1999

I've been wondering the same thing, I always surf with MSIE and your site hasn't crashed on me yet.

Hope this week passes quickly for you.

-- Anonymous, December 29, 1999

Your site hasn't made my MSIE 5 crash, either.

I'm sorry about that awful realization that you don't get granted slack because you aren't the cute one. Oh, how that hurts.

-- Anonymous, December 29, 1999

I go stomp around the parking lot, hide in my room, write in my journal, call a friend, bitch at the guys, and when I have money, I shop. When I don't have money, I go through circulars and catalogs and dream about what I'd like if I had a million dollars. I also play Snood or this really cute snowball fight game I found. I go find the man or the boy and get my hugs.

If all else fails, I become a sobbing mess and go to bed.

-- Anonymous, December 29, 1999

Well, I work out during lunch; that helps. But I'm not a big stress person, even through I've gone through extremely stressful things. I sit back and realize that, sooner or later, it'll work out. This too shall pass is a good mantra. You're tougher than you think. I found that out dealing with two handicapped kids (nonverbal) and found that it's not as ABC tragedy-of-the-week-moviesh as it sounds. I'll grant you what I went through in the last month was horrible--the therapist said the death of a child is the worse thing you can ever go through, and that you take the longest to recover from--but even then, there are people worse off than me, who never had a kid who wanted one, or never had a spouse who was as much a comfort in this time. I get by. It's what I do.--Al of Nova Notes.

-- Anonymous, December 29, 1999

I'm a very internal person, so I just take it until I can take it no more, and then I cry for about 10 minutes, and go on from there. If someone is causing me stress, as opposed to a situation, I talk to myself about that person in the most profane/uncomplimentary way you can imagine. I rarely get mad at people directly. I can count on the fingers of one hand the number of times I've raised my voice at someone I wasn't (a) related to or (b) sleeping with.

-- Anonymous, December 29, 1999

I walk the dog. A lot. I cry. I take very very very very hot showers, and cry in the shower. I get moody and hold back until I lash out. I react inappropriately to things. I eat foods with a great deal of sugar, fat, and salt.

Um, I'm sure I do some more productive stuff too. Really I do.

-- Anonymous, December 29, 1999

If I'm stressed, playing basketball for a couple of hours usually works off some of the nervous energy and gets rid of a lot of furstration. When I get really stressed, I tend to get a bit hyperactive (probably because I also tend to drink a lot of coffee) and getting rid of that energy in a positive forum makes it a lot easier on my friends, family and co-workers, being as the alternative is to lash out at them for no good reason.

The other thing that works for me is visiting the 'rents, because that's where my dog is. Playing with the bassett for an hour or so is a lot of fun and usually drains everything from my mind. It's hard to worry about my problems when I'm playing tug-of-war with a 50-pound bassett hound who decides that her singular goal in life is to maintain possession of her rope-toy.

-- Anonymous, December 29, 1999

Evidently, when I'm stressed I also forget to spellcheck before I post.

"Furstration"? Good one, huh?

-- Anonymous, December 29, 1999

Does anybody else surf the web on the job to escape job stress? Anybody else ever look at the clock and realize that they just spent an hour on the Internet avoiding their extremely important, rush-rush- rush project on their desk? I am, of course, just wondering in a sort of hypothetical way, you understand.

-- Anonymous, December 29, 1999

Tom, what do you think I'm doing right now? Avoiding all my Y2K checks & fixes, of course. The systems folks are shutting all the computers down at 6 tomorrow and I have to come in first thing Saturday to make sure that I caught everything in my code and fixed it. Anything that "breaks" is supposed to be reported. Now THERE'S some pressure for you. But you know, it's so annoying to think about. I'd much rather read Xeney's forums. Stress = surfing! Bad me.

-- Anonymous, December 29, 1999

Well I like to deal with stress by just going into a quite room and just sitting and thinking of why I'm soo mad. I also like to talk it out with people that are close to me. If need be I'll write in my journal or get a piece of paper and cribble all over it untill I feel better.

-- Anonymous, April 30, 2001

Pace. Move from couch to computer, at least a dozen times. Get mentally frazzled. Search for posts on Metafilter which demand one of my fiery and incisive replies. When it becomes too much, I put on the classical music station, sit down with my pencil and my Greek text and deal with middle voice verbs for a while. Eventually, I become so engrossed with puzzling out Attic grammar that whatever was freaking me out, that I'm mostly okay.

-- Anonymous, April 30, 2001