Fortunately, I am not easily deterred, even when the extent of what I do not know has expanded exponentially. Perhaps not knowing is not such a bad thing? Joseph Goldstein says:

“We don’t know a lot. We don’t know much more than we know. And it’s a relief to let go of our attachment to views, our attachment to opinions, especially about things we don’t know. A new mantra began to form in my mind: “Who knows?” This not-knowing is not a quality of bewilderment; it’s not a quality of confusion. It actually is like a breath of fresh air, an openness of mind. Not knowing is simply holding an open mind regarding these very interesting questions to which we might not yet have answers.” http://blogs.psychcentral.com/mindfu...n-not-knowing/

PC, however, is a place of support. I recognize not everyone who may be reading this thread may take anything worthwhile from it. We are unique. When it comes to mental health care, one size does not fit all. There are different levels of trust. Not everyone has the capacity to change. Wanting to change is good, but does not mean a good result will be achieved. Getting better is hard work. The perplexities of what we deal with make it so. Yet, we can try.

Managing bad stress is a goal of mine. In an interview, Dr. Robert Sapolsky of Stanford talked about the ability to detect evidence of a person being scarred by stress during fetal life, or early development. Sapolsky described it as, "molecular scar tissue of your adversities" This ability to detect may allow earlier diagnosis of potential health problems later on. Quite fascinating. http://www.nimh.nih.gov/media/video/sapolsky.shtml

Docjohn's article on stress is here: http://psychcentral.com/stress/
Another one I found helpful is here: http://www.helpguide.org/mental/stress_signs.htm Without careful management, stress can cause serious problems for us.

Lisa Firestone, Ph.D, talks about how to silence the inner voice that causes us to stress out:

Millions of Americans struggle with unhealthy levels of stress. Stress isn’t just destructive to our mental health but to our physical health as well. It weakens our immune systems and contributes to heart disease, high blood pressure, strokes, and other illnesses. These facts are important, but reading about them, or even relaying them, admittedly makes me feel a little, well... stressed. Too often reflecting on our stress just makes us feel worse. So rather than scare you straight when it comes to stress, I thought I would offer a real solution to those nagging (at times terrorizing) thoughts that lead to stress.

The mere mention of the word stress is enough to make our heads spin with thoughts of to-do lists, meetings, schedules, social calendars, kids, work, money. Whatever the trigger mechanism is, it’s always there to distract us from any potential sense of calm. When we allow our negative thoughts to take over, we spend precious energy handling the symptoms of stress instead of solving the problem or dealing with what’s really making us feel such pressure or worry.

These negative thoughts tell us when to worry and what to worry about, but never do they offer us a real solution to our problems. If we were to challenge these negative thoughts, we would soon realize that not only is this destructive thought process amplifying our stress levels but it is actually causing us much of our anxiety in the first place.
http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/...essing-you-out

Stan Goldberg, Ph.D, talks about change here: http://www.psychologytoday.com/print/23530

Here is Dr. Sapolsky again, this time discussing a stress vaccine: http://military.rightpundits.com/201...cine-30-years/

Be well.