Feelings Check In:

If you're a person who struggles with anxiety/depression/etc, how have you been handling things lately? 

I've found social media to be a major trigger for my anxiety, primarily because what comes down your TL is not easily filtered. I'm not able to watch police brutality videos, and Vanessa Guillen's story, I can only keep up with from external sources. Even then, it gets very overwhelming, very quickly, and I have to check myself before going into full-blown panic mode.

To cope, I've been limiting my exposure to social media to within a certain time frame, I see a therapist regularly (telehealth), and I try to spend time on self care (exercise, good food, books, movies, and/or people, to name a few). 

However, I can see how my mood feeds my work.

The last really raw character I wrote was probably Bailey from The Woman He Wanted because of her triggering past. Giorgio is up there too, but I think he handled his adult life much better than Bailey did.

Elias is turning out this way.

But…that hasn't been a bad thing. He's hard, dark, soft, emotional, funny, and very rough-edged. Exactly the type of character I'd expect to create in 2020.

I hope you're all doing well, despite all the sh*ttiness.

xoxo,

Alex