I've been doing much better lately! Anxiety still comes and goes, but is much easier to handle and deal with. That, of course, is a double-edged sword, since I really can't say which of the myriad of things I've thrown at it is responsible. Is it my meds, has therapy helped re-shape my outlook, am I just less stressed in general, or is it just time? Really hard to say. Did you have any similar experiences when you were getting better?

I think my sense of focus and my anxiety are probably deeply linked going in both directions. My anxieties cause me to deeply focus on things for fear of missing details and that in turn causes more anxiety if I over-obsess. If I don't catch myself, I can waste all manners of time obsessing over a trivial detail of something I'm working on.

Anxiety definitely is exhausting, though - to the point where I generally equate being tired with feeling better because I just don't have any energy left to feel anxious. Part of feeling better has thus been feeling unusually tired these last few days, even for how tired I normally am. It's both a physical and mental exhaustion, but then you have my everyday stressors that are contributing more to the mental exhaustion. I tell my girlfriend that I'm tired all the time and she says take a nap and I'm like, "...not that kind of tired". Though in that same vein, your comment about letting thoughts roll around instead of mentally gnawing on them sounds like something I could only do in a state of fatigue :P

I'm also quite lucky to have a circle of friends that definitely "get me" in pretty much every aspect, particularly with being introverted. I could call them up after months or even years of not talking and it would be like we just spoke the other day. Though I do think that getting out and seeing them more will probably be a positive step for my mental health overall.

And yep, Grandpa is a good man. Taught me how to be a good person. And hardly any of it was with words, he showed me with his actions. Like you said, he stepped up and helped me out when nobody else would and didn't get anything in return except for my respect. And the older I get and the more I learned about the life he lived and what he went through, the more that respect grows. To have had the experiences he has had and still come out the kind and gentle person I know him as shows a remarkable character. Among other things, this man was tortured as a POW in Korea and later blown up in a plant explosion... yet he never allowed anything to sour him as a person. I strive to be like that.

Sorry, rambling a bit. We tend to do that

This forum is fine, I don't feel like we're cluttering it up or anything. Normally DMs would be a good place to share things you're less comfortable posting in a public space, but that sort of seems to be the entire point of this site.

I'm down to just four shrines and about 700 golden poops in Breath of the Wild. I'd initially planned to just find the last four shrines and call it for awhile, but I have been all over at this point and those things are pretty well hidden. So I started up another one of the games I picked up (Shredder's Revenge) and have been having a blast with it. I'll eventually go back to Breath of the Wild for a bit, if for no other reason than to put together all of my random thoughts to write up an article.

Oh, and yes, it's hot as hell here in Houston, too. I step outside for more than two minutes and I look like I drank from the wrong grail. But on the plus side, quality time gaming with the kiddo is a huge plus. I wish I had the kind of mother who played games with me. How long have y'all been playing stuff together?