One of the concepts that I have been re-introduced to lately has been the HALT anagram. It can be a very useful way to double-check yourself when things get stressful. H.A.L.T. is an anagram for Hungry Angry/Anxious Lonely Tired - four physicalinfluences that can strongly affect how your mind works, and can really mess you up, given a chance.
More below the Orange Squiggle of Power.
I am, of course, approaching this this from my personal perspective, and my examples will necessarily be from there. The point of the Anagram is to not do important things when under the influences of one of these factors.
We all know the rule "Don't go grocery shopping when you're hungry". You'll buy junk food and other things that are tasty but not especially good for you. Your judgment is not good when you're hungry, and even worse when you're really hungry, because it affects your internal chemistry. And he hungrier you are, the more distracted you are, and that can lead to all sorts of bad decisions.
When you're angry, we all know the first thing to go is judgment. Rage is even worse. How many really bad decisions have been made when really pissed off? And, of course, Fear/anxiety is the other side of the coin of anger, and a lot of the biochemical changes are very similar - adrenaline surges, vasosuppressors, corticosteroids, the whole nine yards. Being angry can really be a major distraction and focus shift, and can lead to very bad decisions.
Loneliness is not just a song by Paul Williams. It can leave you feeling hollowed out, needy, or sometimes just horny. But it definitely has biochemical elements too, and like the other parts of the anagram, can really screw up your judgment circuits. When you're looking for someone to fill that void, you can and often will do things you would not do were you happy and satisfied with your life, and those things can spread out into other aspects of your life with little or no effort. Again, bad decisions.
And we all know how it is when you're tired. And how much worse it can be when you're exhausted. Dream deprivation can lead to extreme moodiness, hallucinations, other extreme mental and emotional changes. Just plain sleep deprivation can screw up your decision making, and when extreme, it can really screw you up.
Case in point - a couple of months ago, I got re-connected to a woman I'd been involved with off and on for a long time. Our situations had changed, hers drastically, and it changed the relationship. Not necessarily in good ways. because of complications, we were not able to do anything much about those changes, but the emotional tension was very present. Now, under normal circumstances, I would have been able to deal with that. Had we been able to just sit and talk for a few hours, it would have worked itself out, but that opportunity was blocked. So I found it hard to sleep. For six weeks. That threw my body chemistry off by quite a bit. Tired to the max. 11 on a scale of 1 to 10.
And the physical symptoms of her stressors (another situation, only somewhat related)were reflected in similar ways - she had lost a lot of weight, blaming herself (wrongly) for her situation, and punishing herself for it. And I made the same mistake, blaming myself for her situation (my responsibility was present, but not as much as I felt it was), so I punished myself, and also lost weight. 35 pounds in a month. Nearly 20% of my total weight. Again, 11 on a 1 to 10 scale.
This was, as I said, brought on by a relationship gone bad. Our long (nearly 30 year) friendship, which had oscillated from very strong to minimal and back many times, oscillated out of control, egged on by all of the other stressors until I did not know what was going on between us at all, and was getting very mixed signals from her, the last of which was "this can't work". Again, an 11.
And this, of course, mad me very fearful and angry. What if it didn't work out? How could I live like that? What about all of the rest of the tapestry of threads we'd woven over the decades? How could I deal with losing that, or messing it up? What might it be like if it worked? But how could I make it work? How could I be worthy? Why was she just taking and not giving anything back? And so on and so on, in an every widening spiral. Another 11.
Add all of these together, and you have a disaster.
Had I been able to stave these off, or at least dial them down to something reasonable, things might have been manageable. And they might have been do-able. Just a little nudge from the right person at the right time could have derailed the whole crazy train. That didn't happen, and I attempted suicide. And now I am in intensive therapy and learning to deal with things like the HALT concept that I had known in an academic way before, but now have to deal with in real life. And I am making it part of my treatment to spread the word, and try to help people who might be on the edge of doing something stupid themselves.
So anyway - are you stressed? Depressed? Feeling on the edge? Think about it. back off. Take a nap, have a good meal, hang out with friends, talk to someone you trust. Dial down the physical and biochemical stressors. Maybe it will help. It certainly couldn't hurt. And it could save your life, or more.