There’s regular mom overwhelm--the overwhelm of life from schlepping everyone everywhere, the everyday drama, the lists of things to do, and the worry. Then there’s pandemic mom overwhelm--and it’s overwhelming on another level. Pandemic mom overwhelm is being stuck at home in the chaos, and not being able to escape it— and there’s so much more for us to do, and everyone's behavior is so much worse ON TOP OF IT ALL.

Pandemic mom overwhelm is ending the day feeling like every part of your body got hit by a runaway train. It’s your whole physical being hurting from all the stress and worry.

It’s snapping and being more impatient because it’s an extra-long and frustrating day.

It’s when you’re tired, and I mean exhausted-- and not in the kind of way that sleep can cure.

It’s when you feel like you’re drowning, and the day-to-day stuff is over your head to the point where you can hardly breathe.

And when you finally try to come up for air, more stuff is thrown your way.

It’s wanting to scream because you feel like you’re jumping out of your skin, and screaming is the only way for it to stop.

It’s discussing future events to the point of obsessing because everything is so up in the air, so obsessing feels better than doing nothing.

It’s going into bed and not being able to sleep for hours because the worry is so strong.

It’s worrying about everything AND THEN SOME--

and it’s a lot.

And we’re all burning the candle at both ends more than before,

knowing that the flame will eventually meet in the middle.

But this is why we can’t worry about the future-- especially when it’s uncertain.

Life feels so much more manageable when we take it one day at a time.

So, let’s face this day and this day alone,

and we’ll worry about tomorrow—

tomorrow.

This post originally appeared on the author's Facebook. Her book Living FULL: Winning My Battle with Eating Disorder is available on Amazon: https://amzn.to/2O4mJId