Life is too precious for you to be joyless! In a tweet, a #multipurposewoman, clinical physiologist, Dr. Jen Wolkin, asked “is it pandemic brain, or long-covid brain-for, or perimenopause, or depression, or ADHD, or profound burnout, or limbic hijack, or “just allergies,” or all of the above?”
That’s 8 different joyless causing issues!!
A number of people, included myself, seemed to take “it“, aka being joyless, as being an acceptable or expected amount of tiredness and/or the inability to focus.
I’m interested in separating the 8 mentioned Bad Guy issues. Those 8 are not the same thing and it matters which you actually are suffering from.
So what is it that’s impacting your wellbeing?
For now here’s my first pass of trying to get a basic “what is it” answer for
each of these 8 Bad Guys terrorizing so many of us
1. pandemic brain: inflammation of the brain induced by the extreme stress of trying to
maintain some normalcy during these abnormal times
2. long-covid brain-fog: cognitive impairment that persists after “recovering” from covid
3. perimenopause: an indeterminant period of time during which ovaries produce less
estrogen thereby causing hormonal imbalances
4. depression: a complex mental health condition with many possible causes. It often
manifests as lack of joy and emotional suffering.
5. ADHD: a neurodevelopmental condition that I’m not willing to call a”disorder”” even though
that word is used in most online definitions
6. profound burnout: a newly acknowledged psychological condition caused by extended
and excessive work related stress.
7. limbic hijack: aka amygdala hijack is having an intense in-the-moment fight-run-hide
response to a stressful but not truly deadly situation
8. “just allergies”: an abnormal or excessive immune system response to things that “most”
people’s bodies perceive as harmless
Figuring out how to be a Well Being takes time and focus
Okay. I feel a bit better just knowing this basic information. A few of these I can quickly mark off my “is it this?” list.
I’m going to spend some time investigating each more fully. What causes each and what symptoms occur with each are answers I’ll seek. Sign up for my monthly “coming soon” emails to learn more.