Stress

Stress: Strain; pressure; especially force exerted upon a body that tends to strain or deform its shape. -- Webster's.



Stress: The condition that results when the brain overrides the body's desire to choke the shit out of some asshole that desperately needs it. -- Popular.



Now that I'm sober I have a lot less stress in my life. Mostly that's because I try not to spend so much time doing the things that cause stress. I am, without a doubt, my own worst enemy. My problems, I think, are mostly of my own making. When I quit behaving in an illegal, immoral, unethical, and of course, irrational fashion, the stress tends to evaporate.

Sometimes I get in trouble when I pretend that all of the stress is completely gone, forever and ever. Life is going to toss stuff at us from time to time. We can manage stress, reduce it, and react better when it happens, but not eliminate it entirely. All of us are going to have money, power, and sex problems; stressful by nature.

I can run but I cannot hide.

Embrace the stress. Give stress its due. Give it a big kiss. Alcoholics like to pretend that problems don't exist. That was our modus operandi when we were drinking. We were vaguely aware of some horribly embarrassing episode from the night before; we were certain that it just went away with enough alcohol.

I need to deal with my stress. It's going to manifest itself somehow if I don't. Stress is like matter -- you can destroy matter. You can change its form but not the fact of its existence. You have to do something with it. It's going to come out somehow.