[sorrel]

Is it normal, after a period of intense fear and worry, to, once that has eased, to worry about something else, and really start to panic about that? I had one hell of a week. I do still have my job for now. But UK budget cuts in the public sector are a looming shadow very much right now, along with associated redundancies. Then, now that has eased off to some degree, at least for a little while, now I've started worrying about my father - I saw him today for the first time in a couple of months, and he looks, well, haunted is the best phrase I can use. He is 70, but he's never really shown his age before. And I could see that he's not seeing properly to shave. I just phoned my parents, and was reassured. And it's a shaver part that's the problem, not dad's eyes. But. You know how worry goes? Is it normal for worry to have a 'chain' like this?

[Lisa Michelle]

It sounds normal to be, I mean, it's normal to worry about your job of course, and then to worry about your dad, and I think it's just that these things happened close to each other, I don't think you worried about your dad BECAUSE you had been worried about your job and then stopped. Am I making sense??

I'm very glad to hear that your dad is just having razor problems and not sight problems! Although, things do change with age, and whatever comes up, I'm sure as a family you can get through them together.

Also glad to hear your job is safe for now.

Try to relax now! Obviously you have REAL things to worry about and we all feel stress, but remember that stress makes you ill, try to find time to be calm.

[Rapunzel]

Yes, stress is cumulative. The more things you worry about, the more anxious you will be if you aren't getting that anxiety resolved, or when some of it is getting stored up in your brain and your body.

[Skully]

Yes, I too find myself in that chain circle. It really stinks when it starts but it is so hard to stop.

[ECHOES]

It sounds like the worry about your father is a separate worry. A worry that is rooted in a real experience of seeing him looking different, looking as if he might not be well, looking his age. Something like that can be a jolt of reality about where a person might be in their life span.

It also may be a tendency to keep something stirred up and to always have something to worry about. That might feel 'right' or 'normal', where feeling relieved and calm may feel foreign.