Hi Cherryblossom and mightsurvive,

I want to comment on this because maybe it will help you both understand that you need to listen to your body and what you wrote here.

I was on the verge of crashing and my doctor gave me a leave of absence a year and a half ago when I was working. My co-workers were mad at me because they didn't think anything was wrong (The mask hides it all). I took the leave anyway and felt a lot of guilt, and ended up going back to work before I felt I should.

Then things got bad again at work, but I wouldn't listen to my body or myself. I just kept going and telling myself I can do this. finally my husband told me that I was such a mess I need to put my two weeks notice in, which I did.

But things got worse at work because the work environment was unorganized. A co-worker threatened to kill the manager because he was so stressed and that caused me nightmares. I didn't make it the two weeks, I made it one week and had a nervous breakdown and landed in the psych ward.

If I had gotten out of there when my body and mind told me to, I probably would have avoided the nervous breakdown. That cost me a lot of money, embarrassment, added pressure for my husband because he had to find a babysitter for our daughter while I was in the hospital for 5 days, and I was concerned about my sanity (I thought I lost it forever) Thank God I got it back though, but I was so worried for about a month or two.

My point here is this; Listen to your body and mind and learn to let go. It's much easier to take a break or quit your job and classes than it is to crash and go to the hospital. That made me feel far worse than when I tool the leave of absence. Not to mention it hurt my bank account. Maybe you could weigh the pros and cons of letting go versus what will happen if you crash.

I only work part time now and that about half kills me, but if I didn't think I could handle it I would quit in a minute because I don't ever want to end up back in the hospital worrying about my sanity and bank account, not to mention add stress to my husband.

It's hard to let go, but sometimes we just have to do it.

Take care both of you and good luck
Tammy