A little too tense
Hello folks.
I have an announcement.
I suffer from hypertension.
Not that kind of hypertension, the other one
This is caused by all the stresses I’ve been put through. Some of it has been building for quite some time and most of it is caused by current stresses put upon me by those people and events in my life that are too intense. You should know who you are and if you don’t know, I’m not going to tell you here.
Hypertension, or high blood pressure, is also caused by my type-A personality, as well as having far too much salt and serum cholesterol in my diet. I believe there is a reason why the letter “A” was used.
I also have gout.
Gout is a very painful form of blood-borne arthritis which seems to attack large joints almost at random. In most cases, it attacks men over age 50 in the big toe. It’s been attacking me since before I could remember and usually in the ankles, but the worst attack was in the knee.
I already ranted about the hospital I was in and the treatment I got there. As a result, I’m on medications, some of which drive up blood pressure as a side-effect.
I also consume far too much caffeine. They call it “the silent killer.” I’m told it can do a lot of permanent damage and then subside, or can keep doing damage until it kills you.
I’m not getting any younger.
The conspiracy theorist in me links it to the GBH fed to the cattle that produced the milk that I drank in elementary school. I draw this conclusion in part because several of my male classmates also have become afflicted with the disease at what convention calls much too young.
It doesn’t help that it seems like everything is a struggle for me. Even when I finally get the things I want, they are often somehow less than what everyone else in my circle has. On top of that, I have a genetic pre-disposition to it.
Here is what one of the stressors had to say about the subject:
HP-MARTYR-SAUCE
Hypertension People (HP), like all others, must be cautious in avoiding “stress-projection.” If an HP becomes a source of stress for a non-HP, it may reflect back onto said HP, making matters worse. Hypertension is not a source of stress. How one copes with imbalances in shared responsibility is a common cause of stress, often on both parties.
A ‘two-way concept’ such as this, if gone unacknowledged, can render the HP as an “emotional blackmailer” of non-HP’s. As in, “Don’t yell at me—you know I have hypertension!”. The non-HP in such a case is put through a ‘guilt-trip’ regardless of the complaint’s legitimacy, a new tension infused into a social dynamic.
In light of this, we must not appear to hide behind our respective illnesses in our shared responsibility with others. If the nature of the illness itself is a genuine cause of stress for the other, then it may unfairly render said other into an impromptu care-giver.
