Beginning Semester Woes

     Yesterday I had my final meeting with my counselor at the Counseling Center.  I was feeling pretty good.  I had been able to walk into campus on my own several times to replenish my Pokeball stash and take over some gyms.  I experienced barely any anxiety before my meeting and by the time it was over, I was on cloud nine.  I felt like maybe finally things were falling into place.  Maybe I would make it through the semester without the sort of issues I'd faced the previous semester.
     I spent my evening playing Pokemon GO at the Waterfront.  Brian and I left almost immediately after we'd finished dinner, something I'll rarely do.  I stayed out for a couple of hours chasing Pokemon and had a blast.  I even convinced Brian to pull over when I spotted a Charmander on my radar on our drive down and I was able to catch it.  That was the first wild Charmander I'd seen and catching it was one of the highlights of my day.

     Fast forward to this morning.  I had two meetings, one for recitation TAs and one for lab TAs (I'm doing both this semester).  I didn't even really feel like I was giving them much thought, but soon after climbing out of bed I realized my GI tract was not doing too well.  It was like last semester all over again, exactly what I had been dreading.
     It wasn't as bad as it has been on my worst days, but it was not fun either.  But I pulled through.  Brian drove me to campus.  Many of the roads were blocked off for incoming students, so I ended up having to walk part of the way, but I didn't feel too wonky.  I arrived just as the meeting was about to begin, so my mind didn't have a lot of time to work itself up.  By the end I felt hungry and tired, but otherwise mostly okay.
     I had my first meeting with an external counselor (as in, not affiliated with school) this afternoon.  Between begging my phone to grant me the Pokemon I saw on my radar and navigating my way to a new location, I kept myself pretty well occupied, so I was feeling mostly all right.  I'm really hoping that through working with a professional instead of going it alone I'll be able to get my anxiety under control.  I can't stand feeling sick whenever I have to leave my house, squaring off against my mind most every morning.  Ugh, anxiety sucks!