In our regular mental health chat, a few words on the smaller things that really get on our nerves. Feel free to add to the list…
We’ve all heard the variations of the ‘straw that broke the camel’s back’ phrase, indicating that just one final small frustration was too much. The one thing that overwhelmed our emotions, frayed our nerves, and made us lose our shit.
While doing some shopping, a few days ago, I heard two people talking. What caught my attention was one woman describing how she’d been eating biscuits while on a video conference with work, and crumbs kept falling down her bra (a problem many of us with larger chests will be familiar with). She mentioned how it was amusing to her, each time… until suddenly it wasn’t funny. One crumb too many disappeared down her top and she broke down in tears.
It is something I find myself dealing with, too. Often when talking to friends about what is bothering me I have to explain that it isn’t one singular thing, but it is ‘a million different things’ and when you separate them they seem so petty. How can I make someone understand that I’m on the verge of a breakdown because I can’t find the nail clippers?
But it’s a very real situation, and we’ve all been there. In fact, we’re all there right now. There is always something small annoying us, but we just brush it off because it is a small problem.
Perhaps we’re all so used to having in depth conversations about the bigger issues and our more pressing matters that we forget to address the growing mountain of smaller things that have irked us. Maybe those are some of the discussions we need to be having. But it is difficult to convince people to have conversation that starts off with someone growling that they used the wrong spelling of ‘there’ in a Facebook post.
We need to normalise grumbling about the smaller things in a way that actually acknowledges them and helps us to deal with them. Only then can we put it aside and avoid turning that molehill in the garden into Mount Everest.
With that in mind, here are a few small things that have bugged me recently;
- I waited five minutes too long debating an item on Vinted, and it sold.
- The cat magically found more plastic to chew on.
- My local shop has been sold out of Twix Extra’s for over a week, and I really want one.
- I can’t find my favourite pair of socks.
- I used the wrong spelling of ‘there’ in a Facebook post. (Yes, that was me. I’m ashamed.)
- Buying things costs money. I mean, how rude!
- Yesterday I found 23p in copper pennies. I hate copper pennies.
- I have to send some emails to people asking for things that are already technically mine.
- Someone told me I use too many different analogies in a single conversation or article. (Pretty sure that is a lie. Right?)
Obviously these things are tiny and practically insignificant, on their own. But when you take them as a collection, and add them to the other million small annoyances you haven’t dealt with, and throw a handful of major life concerns into the mix, it just gets overwhelming. And eventually, whether it is the splash of milk that preferred the kitchen counter to the coffee mug, or the toddler that asked ‘why?’ 74 times as opposed to the recommended 73, it all just becomes too much to handle.
It becomes that one crumb in the bra too many.
So, for your own sake, please speak out and find a way to share the smaller irritating moments in your life.
