How do you keep from going insane while waiting for something big?

The Serenity Prayer:
God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I can not change
The courage to change the things I can
And the wisdom to know the difference.

I’m sorry to hear you’re going through that. It’s tough, I know. The best I can suggest is for you to shoot a little prayer upwards and keep your mind busy thinking about other stuff as much as possible. Being around people helps, or seeing a funny movie. Wishing you a happy outcome, @RandomGirl.

Talk to friends. Express your emotions and feelings calmly with someone who will listen. It is the unknown that is scary.

And like everyone else says, prayer works too!

You know what’s funny? Being reminded by you guys of the power of prayer. We Christians forget about how great God is sometimes. Humans in general get wrapped up in what we can do. It’s terrifying in a time like this to admit that I can’t do anything to actually change it. I just have to wait and pray. I don’t know why exactly, but @Judi, @Pachyderm_In_The_Room, and @zenvelo, your responses have changed my attitude about this, at least right now. Thank you!

I’m a little bit (ok, a lot) of a worrywart.

In these situations, I can go one of two ways: Beating myself in the skull repeatedly over the what-ifs, or taking the “We’re all stardust” approach.

That is to say, when it all boils down to it, life is a journey I’m lucky to be experiencing, and no matter what happens, the battles will be fought as they approach. Since you cannot plan for a battle if you don’t know what you’re fighting, there’s no point in wearing armour for every possible battle – it’s too heavy, too cumbersome, and it won’t help you win. Just wait, bide your time until you know what you’ll face. Enjoy the calm before the storm. Then suit up and ride out when you know more.

What a great question and at a time when it is certainly pertinent in my life. I just sat before a promotion board two days ago for a significant promotion (Master Sergeant in the Air Force) that I am eligible for. I am competing for this promotion against two others and we received an email that we have to wait 5 more days to find out the results of who will be getting the promotion. The waiting is going to drive me crazy.

What I plan on doing is catching up on a lot of reading on my Kindle that I have been neglecting, watching a lot of television series episodes that I need to catch up on (Hulu Plus), playing a video game or two, and listening to a lot of music (stress reliever for me). Hopefully all of these activities will help me remain calm and collected while waiting the 5 long days to receive the news I mentioned above.

@Seek_Kolinahr: I like your analogy there. Enjoy the calm before the storm. Then suit up and ride out when you know more.

@RandomGirl Never having faced something that momentous, I am poorly equipped to hand out any advice. I think I would think like @Seek_Kolinahr suggests. What I know for sure is my heart, and I am sure the hearts of many here, are with you as you face this.

Thanks, @ETpro.

I’m currently waiting for Monday’s appointment to see if I have breast cancer like my mom. It sucks and I’m worried, but either way, nothing will change the outcome. Live for the day and love like there’s no tomorrow, and turn that ‘thinking’ switch off in your brain. I compartmentalize well, it’s like locking something up behind a door and refusing to open until you’re ready. It works for me, good luck doll.

Many years ago, I got pulled into court to defend my parenting skills. Ugly business…
While waiting to testify, which took 1½ years, I immersed myself in the Kennedy Assassination.
It is so complicated that it kept me from thinking about anything else.

Try to think that things will work out better than you thought.
Hopefully it will be something minor and fixable.
For every negative there is a positive…so think of both scenerios.
Good Health to you, hope all works out in the end.

Don’t buy trouble. You don’t know what the results are going to be so don’t think worst case. Keep some people around you to keep you occupied or keep active with something else. You can deal with the results Monday

Meditation. Which, I guess, is a little like prayer.

@Judi, I thought the last line was: “And the good grace not to f*ck up too often.”

Just thought you guys might like an update.
Not sure why, but my case seems to be one of my doc’s top priorities at the moment, and he rushed the MRI results. He called today (only about 1½ days instead of 3) and told us IT’S CLEAR! So he’s treating it like a very irregular migraine and gave me some Imitrex, which seems like it might be working.
We’re seeing a neurologist in Minneapolis next week, to see if we can find out what’s been causing this. But it looks good!

@RandomGirl Fucking great news!!!!!!!

I have a friend who gets awful migraines after eating anything with MSG. Just sayin’.

My mammogram recall test also came back ‘not suspicious’ today as well. :)