Stress.

I am stressed. The past 6 weeks I've been running at a constant level of high stress and it is starting to take its toll. It's all work related too. Normally at the end of a stressful work week I might have had a glass of wine to relax. Now at the end of pretty much every work day I have been brewing a fresh pot of coffee because there is so much to be done in the evenings that I need another jolt of energy. Forget relaxing, it's all GO GO GO. I feel constantly on edge, wired and yet not feeling like my thoughts are organized. I feel scattered. Distractable. Unable to focus. In conversations lately I struggle to find the right words.

Every weekend I say I'm going to get some rest and be back on my game for the upcoming week. But by Monday at 7am the stress is back on my shoulders and I'm out of sorts again.

I have no good solution for this. How do you tackle stress and force yourself to relax? Any good suggestions? I'm considering trying Gingko Biloba or some kind of supplement meant for concentration but I think that's just grasping at straws.

Post Script:

- added to update on my last post regarding my husbands incommunicado status driving me bazonkers: I must give him some props for yesterday to make up for that. Yesterday he was AWESOME. Amazeballs.* Joe worked his standard clinical rotation at Children's yesterday with an absolutely miserable 2 year old who he said cried nonstop all shift long. Poor kid. He came home, picked up Little One and was hosting an impromptu game of kick ball in the back yard with 3 neighbor kids. One of our neighbors was in the middle of treating his lawn when a wheel fell off of his spreader. Knowing that Joe is that guy in the neighborhood who will help anyone he came over and Joe dug out our commercial grade spreader that had been put away for the winter for him. I got home, barely walked in the door when I received a desperate text from a neighbor whose 5 year old had just had her tonsils and adenoids removed. Child was refusing pain meds, was 4 hrs overdue to be dosed, miserable and throwing up. Could Joe come down and help? Off to the rescue he goes with stethoscope in hand (I love when he rescues people!). And to top it off when he got home from dealing with our neighbors little one he told me that he had fixed our broken oven that afternoon. Total renaissance man, I love it. Fix the oven, help a neighbor, take care of sick kids... he's a total keeper. But I still wish I had a direct line to reach his brain. :)

*I love that term. One of my guilty pleasures is reality TV (the little couple, giuliana and bill, tori & dean etc) and that term comes from Giuliana and Bill. I find them hilarious, mindless entertainment.