Anxiety and Vacation

A place for members to talk about things outside of Virgin Islands travel.
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Connie
Posts: 1940
Joined: Tue Aug 07, 2007 2:20 pm
Location: Philly burbs

Anxiety and Vacation

Post by Connie »

Two more nights and we'll be on a plane early in the morning.

I get this way every time that we get close to a vacation. Things just start to worry me.

My Mom is 87 and I'm the primary care giver.
My 3 cats? Will they be ok? They're really attached.
Will everything be ok at home when I'm away and can't take care of it?
Will I get homesick? This is a 10 day trip.
Going to the dentist tomorrow. I have a tooth bothering me (figures).

It's really driving me crazy today.

Does anybody else get these feelings?
"Paradise...it's a state of mine"
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LysaC
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Joined: Tue Aug 08, 2006 1:42 pm
Location: New England

Post by LysaC »

Yes.

My husband and I are cursed. It starts 1-2 months before we are due to fly out and things start going wrong- our sink busted spurting out water on a Sunday, our dog was diagnosed w. cancer and had major surgery the week before we left, our furnace backed up on a Sunday (this happened twice in 2 seperate years), we had 3 feet of snow the night before we flew out, etc, etc, etc.

Becasue of this curse, we suffer from high anxiety shortly before we are due to fly out.

A drink helps followed by mantra's like this-

"We deserve a vacation"
"We cannot control everything"
"Many people go on vacation every day"
"We have good friends and great family to take care of things while we are gone"
"We bought trip insurance"

I hope these mantra's help! Oh and don't forget the drink. And maybe some Ativan :).
PA Girl
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Joined: Tue Aug 29, 2006 11:55 am

Post by PA Girl »

Yeah, we get it. Hubs more than me. It isn't as bad as it used to be.
Connie
Posts: 1940
Joined: Tue Aug 07, 2007 2:20 pm
Location: Philly burbs

Post by Connie »

Lysa, I'm going to keep saying all those things to myself, but I know you know that it's still tough.

I was looking around the internet and I'm really surprised how many people have this vacation anxiety.

We'll hit the bar at the airport and hopefully from there I can relax.

Husband is great with this. I mean, really....god bless him because he has to deal with my anxiety issues.
"Paradise...it's a state of mine"
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augie
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Location: Where the weather suits my clothes

Post by augie »

LysaC wrote: "Many people go on vacation every day"
I want to be one of those people...

:wink:
Come see us!
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LysaC
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Joined: Tue Aug 08, 2006 1:42 pm
Location: New England

Post by LysaC »

Once you get on that plane, there's no turning back.

It's at that point, as long as the Ativan has kicked in for flying anxiety, that my vacation anxiety goes away.

Once I'm on island, forget about it. What dog? What furnace? How much snow? Who gives a shit- I pay people to take care of that stuff while I'm gone and I'm gonna go pretend to be rich, living on an island paradise and owning the world- hahahaha!
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linne
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Joined: Mon May 14, 2007 4:25 pm
Location: Denmark

Post by linne »

I'm too very anxious before I go on vacation, and I can imagine a lot of bad thing, which can happen.
But luckily, when we are there, I'm very good to relax and forget everything about it.

Hope you will have/have dad a nice vacation Connie.

Linne
Connie
Posts: 1940
Joined: Tue Aug 07, 2007 2:20 pm
Location: Philly burbs

Post by Connie »

Thanks Linne. As the organization starts to flow, I'm feeling a little bit better. Yesterday was a really bad day for me.

I'm just always been so organized and when things go wrong and I have no control, that's when I get upset.

Handing things off to my husband is my plan this time. Let him worry about things.

Going over to Mom's now to get her organized and she knows all of our numbers to get in touch with us. I hope she does well when I'm away. Thank God I have ONE great brother who is my protector. He will be helping out when I'm away.
"Paradise...it's a state of mine"
PA Girl
Posts: 4485
Joined: Tue Aug 29, 2006 11:55 am

Post by PA Girl »

LysaC wrote:Once you get on that plane, there's no turning back.

It's at that point, as long as the Ativan has kicked in for flying anxiety, that my vacation anxiety goes away.

Once I'm on island, forget about it. What dog? What furnace? How much snow? Who gives a shit- I pay people to take care of that stuff while I'm gone and I'm gonna go pretend to be rich, living on an island paradise and owning the world- hahahaha!
I hear yah! Pre-kid, I loved to fly, had no problems what so ever. Post-kid, it is a problem. Ativan is my flying friend :)
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LysaC
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Location: New England

Post by LysaC »

A few friends of mine have recently tried hypnotherapy for anxiety- medical anxiety, flying anxiety and boating anxiety (yes, that's what I said).

This therapy has worked for both friends. One of them just came back from STJ. She has the boating anxiety and spent almost every day on boat day trips!

The other friend has a lot of control issues that cause her anxieties so the therapists helps her "let go" a lot.

I'm probably going to try hypnotherapy for my flying anxiety which is also a control-based anxiety.
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Diana2
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Location: Michigan

Post by Diana2 »

I totally understand what you're going through, Connie. My Mom is 89 and I'm the primary caregiver. Last year while I was on STJ for 3 weeks my sister came from Arizona for 1 week and what was supposed to be her last night with Mom, Nancy took Mom out to dinner and Mother fell and ended up in the ER for x-rays (thank God, she didn't break anything) but Nancy had to stay a couple of days (she had to cancel some golf dates...too bad). Mom couldn't walk without assistance so I had to arranged for her to be moved to an assisted living facility with visiting nursing care (all this by phone from STJ). I've got my fingers crossed that all is well this time. My daughter flew in from California to take care of Grandma while I'm gone for 2 weeks. She will be better able to manage things than my sister (70) ever could.

I hate the preparation for a packing process. Once I'm on the plane I'm fine. It's those few days leading up to departure that make me crazy. Maybe I should get myself one of those prescriptions :D !

See you at the Beach Bar on Sunday, Connie. Have a good flight.
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