My father died of pancreatic cancer. My maternal grandmother died of brain cancer. My maternal grandfather died of throat cancer. My paternal grandmother had skin cancer and breast cancer. My husband had mouth cancer. The son of a good friend of mine had leukemia. One of my favorite English teachers died from brain cancer. My neighbor has brain cancer.

I'm tired of cancer stealing away my loved ones and raining misery on our lives.

Please help me fight cancer by donating your spare change to the American Cancer Society. Don't have any spare change? Then skip your morning latte (or afternoon soda, etc.) and spend the money on fighting cancer.

Every $1 makes a difference. Don't believe me? I've set up a group page, called Families Fighting Cancer, at the American Cancer Society events sites. I plan to gather up loose change, skip an indulgence once per week, and donate a tiny bit of money here and there to the ACS. Plus, I'm going to ask other people to do the same. The goal is to see if a few tiny sacrifices can really make a difference by eventually reaching a donation goal of $1,000.

$1,000 in spare change.

Want to help?

Go to
http://main.acsevents.org/goto/familiesfightingcancer
and donate $1 or $5 or more if you can.

Labels: Activism

I've been trying to deal with this anxiety, OCD, depression thing for years. Therapy helps. Medication can help (but it comes with nasty side effects). Improving your diet and eating lots of good fats, vitamins, etc. help. But what helps me most of all is cardio exercise.

I was reading about all the various benefits there are to cardio exercise, and it turns out that cardio exercise is like medicine for the brain.

All week long I've been walking or doing indoor cardio in the morning. Since doing that, my brain has certainly been functioning much better. It's a huge difference. I'm more creative, more productive, more optimistic, more logical, and better able to solve problems and remember things.

Here I thought I was getting worse with my mental issues because I was gaining weight, feeling overwhelmed, couldn't control my thoughts, and dealing with the typical stresses of life. It turns out I was just lacking cardio exercise. Now whenever I feel like binge eating because I'm stressed or crying because I'm depressed or beating myself up because I'm not controlling my anxiety well enough, I'm going to grab my jump rope and do 100 jumps or get out my stepbench and march up and down it for 10 minutes, or put on my shoes and head out for a walk.

Strength training is great for building muscles, bones, connective tissues, and metabolism, but cardio is exercise for the brain.

I'll definitely be writing a Kristen's Guide article about this.

Labels: My Life

I used to hope that "one day" I'd be free of anxiety disorders, free of OCD, and just plain ol' normal. Today though, I (with the help of my therapist) realized that I will probably always have anxiety disorders, more than the average population does. I have to think of it as a chronic lifelong disorder. I've had it since I was a little kid, and I will probably always have it. It has manifested itself in dozens of ways and it has led to depression, phobias, compulsions, and some bad decisions (like binge eating or shopping) to comfort myself. Worst of all, it can sometimes leave me incapacitated and keeps me from being the mother and wife I want to be.

I've read book after book about how to "cure your anxiety" or "stop anxiety," but those books are wrong. It isn't something that I can cure, something that will stop one day. It will always be there. For me, it's a chronic, longterm disorder. I will always have to manage it. I will always have to carefully manage my stress levels, physical health, and cognitive habits, similar to the way that a type 1 diabetic will always have to carefully manage their sugar levels, diet, and lifestyle. I can't take a day off from management without seriously screwing up my brain. I have to do it every day, forever.

It's really not such a bad thing. There are worse things in the world to deal with, so why should I complain? It's just the idea that bothers me, the idea that I can't let go like other people can. It's like my asthma. I grew up with asthma, so I couldn't do things that other kids did. I couldn't do sports. PE teachers hated me. And my sedentary lifestyle led to being overweight. I always envied the athletic kids. Eventually I learned to just accept it, to manage it.

And now it's the same thing with my stress levels. I can't be spontaneous. I have to plan as much as I can. I have to stay on a routine. And at the same time, I can't obsess about it or try to be perfect with my management efforts because that would also cause problems. I need to avoid things that might create stressful situations. That means that there are many things that I wanted to do but I can't do without risking screwing up my brain.

Oh well, it will be OK. Things always work out. Good comes from everything. And I'm sure it will be much easier than it seems.

Labels: My Life