Thin skinned and stretched taut

Most days, I have a pretty tight grip on my emotions, and I tend to the cheerful more often than not. For the most part, I am in control. Some days, though, I can really relate to the emotional whirlpool that is my toddler.

Lately, I feel like my emotions are driving the truck. They are driving the truck through a really bumpy field, and I am holding on to the back bumper by my fingertips, trying not to get thrown off and run over. I’m all strung out and covered in bits of manurey straw, emotionally speaking.

You get the idea.

Do you think it’s possible that we get emotional viruses just like we get physical viruses? This is a new theory of mine. A regular virus is some sort of bug that invades the body, reproduces alarmingly and manifests itself with physical symptoms like a hacking cough, runny nose, fever and the like.

What if there are emotional viruses, too? Viruses that somehow get into your system and completely mess up your emotional responses to things, so you are inordinately crabby for a couple of days, or sensitive to the point of hysteria. Ever noticed how emotional instability sometimes spreads through the family just like a virus, and a family that is perfectly well-balanced and content one day can be a typhoon of overwrought emotions the next?

What do you do on days like that, when know you're on the edge? Any coping strategies you'd like to share? Don't worry, I'm not heading for a bell tower with a rifle (not yet, anyway)... it just seems that everything gets under my skin immediately, instead of giving me a bit of a grace period to see it coming and dial down the burners. (Ugh, what a stew of mixed metaphors. And you know what, I'm not even going to go back and edit them out. Ha!)

Oh look, I'm officially rambling at this point. Time to wrap this one up, cohesive ending be damned. Comment if you want to. Or don't. See if I care.

(I care.)