Because today is Chocolate Milkshake Day, our Sunday Scribblings prompt for this week is Milkshake. If you decide to write a post based on this week’s prompt, be sure to go back here and share your link so everyone can see how you interpreted things! Here’s what I did with it…

I’m gonna be honest… I am feeling extremely anxious these days. And it’s the kind of anxiety that has made me want to only do the bare minimum to get by. I mean… I don’t feel like writing. I don’t feel like working. I sit and worry about my job and the changing expectations or the lack of clients and all that needs to be done and in spite of knowing there’s a ton I need to do I just don’t want to do it. I lack motivation. I just want to crawl into my bed and bury myself under the comforter and emerge only to eat and go to the bathroom.

Is there a milkshake that relieves anxiety?

I hate feeling this way. I hate that I’ve been feeling this way for weeks… maybe months. Because I’ve never considered myself to be an anxious person. I mean, I’ve become anxious over certain events in my life from time to time. I’m human. But I’m a generally laid back individual.

I can still put on that laid back front when I’m with people. My response to clients who are expressing anxiety is to try and be as calm as possible. I’ve always found that my laid back personality is a nice counter balance to an anxiety disorder. So I’ve been wearing that mask lately. But when I’m alone in my apartment, the mask comes off and I’m on edge, ready to freak out for no apparent reason.

I don’t know if it’s the past year and a half that has flipped this switch in me. I mean, I’m certain that the pandemic has had an effect on me in that I definitely feel anxious about gathering in large groups of people again. But has it turned me into someone with an anxiety disorder?

Not that I’ve been diagnosed. I’m certainly not qualified to diagnose myself. I haven’t seen a counselor and I haven’t sought a psychiatric opinion in decades… so I don’t know. But I know how I feel. And it’s not good.

I know… my advice to someone in my situation would be to seek counseling at the very least. But then I think about how I’m too worried about my job and the overwhelming unhappiness associated with my job to consider trying to find a counselor that I can feel comfortable spending time with and talking to on a semi-weekly basis.

Seriously… is there a milkshake that relieves anxiety? I could really go for one of those right now.

Thanks to everyone who participated this week and shared your links! Please visit their blogs, give them a follow, and take a look at how they interpreted the prompt.

1. gigglingfattie
2. For the Love of Books

Be sure to come back on Wednesday for the next Sunday Scribblings prompt! Encourage other bloggers to challenge themselves with the prompt! Remember that there are no rules for what you write, other than responding to the prompt! You can write fiction, non-fiction, poetry, prose, biography, instruction… it’s all up to you!

Feature Photo by Hybrid on Unsplash