![](\"http:\/\/www.breigh.com\/blogpics\/stressed.gif\")
<\/p>\n
Over the last few months he’s been growing increasingly stressed at work. He’s mentioned this a few times but I never thought it was as bad as it was. He didn’t talk about it that much so I thought it was just him letting off steam after a rough day.<\/p>\n
On Friday morning he had a proper meltdown. I found him pacing the livingroom and sat there while he explained everything he’s been feeling over the last few months and how hard it’s been for him lately. It explained a lot… mainly why he hasn’t been himself lately. The happy-go-lucky, laid back Xander that I married has slowly morphed into a tense, cranky, anti-social stranger that often left me frustrated and confused.<\/p>\n
He was shaking, pacing, wringing his hands and all the things that have been bothering him came pouring out. His work, project after project, no time to relax, not sleeping, stomach pains, chest pains, headaches, people not doing what they are supposed to do, multiple projects… it went on and on. I had no idea it had been getting this bad for him and I was so sad to think that he’d been carrying this around for weeks or months without any release.<\/p>\n
I talked him into going to the doctor, and we were on our way a few hours later. We saw a lovely lady doctor at the clinic where he went last (like 5 years ago, he never gets sick!). It was heartbreaking for me to sit there and watch him… he completely broke down and told her how everything is weighing on him and how he’s been feeling. He is completely burned out and between the stress and the worry of letting down his colleagues, he had wound himself so tight… All I could do was sit there and rub his back or his arm to know I was there and try not to cry myself.<\/p>\n
He’s been put on stress leave from work until further notice but I think he’s spending more time worrying about leaving his team with more work than he is worrying about himself. Hopefully he will start to relax over the next few weeks. <\/p>\n
His company has been really good about it… but I think this is something they see quite often so they aren’t surprised. They are hooking him up with people to talk to so he can learn to manage the stress. In the meantime I’ll be trying to figure out how to make things as stress free as possible for him here at home.<\/p>\n
It’s strange how things change. For so long it was me who struggled and felt the depression and anxiety that he couldn’t quite understand and it was him who had to sit and watch me go through it, with a feeling of helplessness that I couldn’t understand either.<\/p>\n
Now it’s him who needs my support and I’m the one feeling helpless… now he understands how horrible it is to feel something you don’t want to feel and not be able to make it stop… and I understand how heartbreaking it is to see someone you love so upset and knowing there isn’t anything you can do but just be there.<\/p>\n
I’m truly thankful that I have been able to get myself in a better mental state this winter, so I know I can be strong for him.<\/p>\n
Life is strange sometimes… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
This has been such a strange weekend. It all started on Friday morning… After my Foading of him last week (which I feel quite guilty about now) my husband broke down and confessed to me what is really going on with him and why he’s been acting so strangely lately. Over the last few months he’s …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":7054,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[52],"class_list":["post-577","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","","category-life-in-nl","tag-xander"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.canadutch.nl\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/577","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.canadutch.nl\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.canadutch.nl\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.canadutch.nl\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.canadutch.nl\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=577"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.canadutch.nl\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/577\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5227,"href":"https:\/\/www.canadutch.nl\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/577\/revisions\/5227"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.canadutch.nl\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7054"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.canadutch.nl\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=577"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.canadutch.nl\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=577"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.canadutch.nl\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=577"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}