not pretty

By me • Nov 20th, 2006 • Category: being sick

I’ve developed yet another lovely physiological reaction to stress to add to my classic crowd-pleasing repertoire of nail biting, acne, fidgeting, and anxiety attacks. I know you’ve all been waiting to know what new type of bad habit my subconscious has decided to take up because it’s been so long since the debut of the last one (although the anxiety attack opening night was far more spectacular.)

Drum roll please….

Lately I’ve started clenching my jaw and grinding my teeth - which I’ve found is a terribly painful past time, however even that doesn’t deter me from the continued practice. And to make matters worse I have an overbite that I’ve hidden from my dentist for the last 29 years so more than once I’ve caught myself pushing my top front teeth forward with my jaw for hours on end. Which is someday going to make me look like I belong in a trailer park (add that to the list of things that will guarantee that I will never get laid again.) During the day I’m able to catch myself doing it, consciously force myself to calm down, stretch my facial muscles, and take a few deep breaths until I relax. But at night it’s not possible to wake up every hour just to make myself relax. Last Friday morning I woke up in pain, at that point it was nothing a couple of Motrin 800’s couldn’t handle, but during the day the pain progressed to the point where all the muscles in my neck and face were so stiff and sore that it hurt to move my head or even hold it up. So I had to spend a perfectly good Friday night at home (when I could have been out getting drunk, buying drugs, and having lots of kinky sex - not that I would have been, the chances are much greater that I would have stayed in with the cats, my spinning, and whatever current movie showed up from Netflix, but still, as a single woman, I like to think that I always have that option if I want it), in bed with hot packs on my neck and face. It made me look so ugly, so pathetic, and so scary that I just had a choice - start crying or laugh (quietly so that I didn’t move me head too much), take pictures, and share with all of you.