World Woes

Last night, as is typical, I was still slightly stressing over today's post. In fact, I think the only time I don't stress over a BB&B post is when I am due to write the 'Delusional Thursday' post. I rarely stress over my own blog page, mostly because each and every post usually falls into the 'delusional' side of things, but I frequently find myself worrying about what I am going to write for here.

Anyway, as I finally drifted off to sleep last night, I had a vague idea pop into my head, and I closed my eyes, infinitely thankful that I at least had a starting point for today's post. But do you know what? I'm not going to continue with the idea that I had, because something else occurred to me this morning.

I awoke about ten minutes before my fourteen year old was due to leave for school. I did the usual - made sure he had everything in his bag (he is very forgetful), reminded him to brush his teeth and spray some deodorant, etc etc - and was about to wave him off when he suddenly said "Do I have to go to school?".

Now, to be fair, this is not an unusual question in my house, so I merely rolled my eyes and prepared myself to give the usual speech about children having to attend school by law, blah, blah, blah. Then my son explained the reason why he wished to stay home today.

Stress.

Yes, he is stressed. He is being constantly hounded and teased by another boy (this is also something that I am no stranger to). I sighed, told my son to stay home for the day, and phoned his school to make arrangements to speak with a teacher. Anyway, I'm not going to waffle on about my boy's seemingly unending stream of problems with his peers. The point I am trying to get across is that in today's society, one of the most unfortunate things that most people have in common is stress.

The economic climate at the moment is probably the worst it has been in a long, long time. Unless you are one of the fortunate few, you are likely to be struggling financially. I can't remember the last time that I didn't go to bed worrying about money - specifically, the lack thereof.  My night-time ponderings are usually to do with how I am going to be able to stretch my meagre weekly funds to cover basic bills and buy enough food to last until the next pay day. Every time a letter is sent home from my one my children's schools, I close my eyes and inwardly pray that they are not asking for money. I live in dread that one of my kids will come home with a tear in their coat or a hole in their shoes, because that will mean having to buy replacements, which I simply don't have the money for.

And there doesn't seem to be any indication that things will be getting better any time soon. There are no jobs to be found, and if you are lucky enough to have a job, then you are possibly living with the very real threat of redundancy. Businesses are going under every day, unable to stay standing under the crippling weight of rising prices and fewer clients.

And it is not only money worries, either. My son's stress over another child's teasing is another disturbingly rising problem amongst our children. Heck, even my nine year old daughter is frequently stressing about things on a daily basis, whether it is something as trivial as having the latest pair of shoes, to the worry about being teased because she doesn't fit today's image of a pre-teen girl.

The problem with stress is that there is nothing you can do about it unless the initial cause is rectified, and usually fixing the problem relies on things that are out of your control. This leads to feelings of helplessness (and hopelessness), which in turn adds to the initial stress, and pretty soon you may find yourself so deeply buried in worry that a way out seems impossible.

Nearly everyone will experience this at some point in their lives, and with one of the highest causes of stress being financially related, is it any wonder that in today's economic climate, depression appears to be on the rise.

There doesn't seem to be a way to finish this post on a positive note, unfortunately. I have rambled a little bit about my my own thoughts on something that is topical of the moment, but I have no way of finding a silver lining to the cloud of doom that seems to be covering half of the planet. Perhaps that is why I dislike 'Topical Tuesdays' the most out of our blog subjects, and why I probably like 'Delusional Thursdays' the best. I like being delusional mostly because it helps me forget the very real problems that worry me endlessly on a daily basis. Sometimes it sucks being in the real world, aye?

And on that happy note, I will end this.