The many flavors of stress . . .

We all know that stress can have physical effects on the human body. And stressors can be either positive or negative. Getting bitten by a dog is, of course, a stressor. So is meeting your boyfriend's parents, however delightful they may turn out to be.

During a particularly bad roommate situation in college, I acquired one of the more annoying manifestations of stress: TMJ. Once you have an experience with stress-related TMJ, it never really "goes away" again. Not that you deal with it all the time. No, it just becomes one more thing that is likely to happen every time you reach a particular stress level. I find it interesting because my TMJ will actually often kick in before I reach a point where I feel terribly stressed. It's one of my early warning signs.

I just had my afternoon snack--vitamins cleverly disguised as a candy bar. And when I began to chew, I heard clicking/crunching sounds from the left side of my jaw. I think that the background stress of long hours and the good stress of dating just combined with today's go-round with HR/workman's comp/the doctor to put me in a bad way.

I foresee a hot tub in my very near future . . .