• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer
Widow's Voice

Widow's Voice

  • Soaring Spirits
  • Donate
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • YouTube
  • Home
  • Blog
  • Categories
  • Authors
    • Kelley Lynn
    • Emily Vielhauer
    • Emma Pearson
    • Kathie Neff
    • Gary Ravitz
    • Victoria Helmly
    • Lisa Begin-Kruysman

Stress Manifested

Posted on: October 24, 2022 | Posted by: Emily Vielhauer

Last Monday, I was feeling a small sense of calm after weeks of high stress. I’d been stressed with the daily tasks of parenting and adulting my household alone. While grieving heavily as the longevity of this loss came into focus.

Photo by Lindsay Cash on Unsplash

Monday afternoon I sat down in the chair at my hairstylist because shocking, these highlights are not natural! As she started lifting my hair to start the foiling process, she gave me an inquisitive look.

‘Emily, have you noticed this spot here?’

I had no idea what she was talking about. She parted my hair to reveal a bald patch as I stared in disbelief. How on earth did I not find this myself?

While she stated she is not a doctor, this looked like the cases of Alopecia she’s seen. Then she directed me to call my dermatologist. Finally, she assured me that they can usually give injections to the site to stimulate hair growth.

I am glad I didn’t find this patch myself. I would have gone into full on panic mode and wouldn’t have even known who to call. Her reassurance gave me the calm I needed until I was able to see my dermatologist last Friday.

The only spot I have so far

At my appointment, they diagnosed my hair loss as Alopecia Areata. For those unfamiliar, it’s an autoimmune disease that causes hair loss when your immune system mistakenly attacks your hair follicles as germs. This version of alopecia is usually temporary but how long it lasts and how many bald patches you get can vary and is unpredictable.

I was given two options, having a treatment injected in the area, or taking home a topical ointment to be applied twice daily. I opted for the injections, because another adding a twice daily to-do to my list seemed daunting.

There are several factors that can cause this kind of alopecia and one of them is high stress. I know that stress can manifest itself in different ways, but this was not on my radar. I experienced some hair loss in the beginning, but it was an overall thinning versus what I’m going through now. No warned me this was a possibility but I’m willing to bet I’m not the only one out there going through this.

Stress is part of our lives as widows and our bodies will let us know when it becomes too much. I bought myself a daily multivitamin for daily stress relief with plenty of biotin and the other ABCs of the supplement world. The other thing I need to work on is finding ways to mitigate my stress level. I think that probably including programming in some mom down time away from my kids, trying to eat better and maybe even adding some spa treatments to my life. I am programmed to take care of everyone else, I find myself on the backburner most of the time. This is a pretty big red flag that this isn’t working, and I need to make adjustments.

Photo by Max van den Oetelaar on Unsplash

Categories: Widowed, Widowed Parenting, Widowed Emotions, Widowed Suddenly, Widowed by Suicide, Miscellaneous

About Emily Vielhauer

My name is Emily Vielhauer, I am 42 years old and have 3 knuckleheaded sons who are between the ages of 8 and 13. My husband, Tony, and I were married for 14 years and despite how things ended we built something great together.

April 19th, 2021 was the last day of my ‘before’ story. The day before I became a widow, before I was a solo parent to 3 boys, before I knew my love was suffering in silence, before suicide rocked my world, before I had to break the hearts of my children and all our friends and family, before I planned a funeral and delivered a eulogy, before I knew the true depths of my love for Tony and the way that love would be expressed through grief, so many befores.

My hope for this blog is to take you along with me as I navigate my life in the ‘after’ and that my words help someone else out there, whether they empower you or just let you know that you’re not alone out there.

Primary Sidebar

Footer

Quick Links

  • Home
  • Blog
  • Categories
  • Authors

SSI Network

  • Soaring Spirits International
  • Camp Widow
  • Resilience Center
  • Soaring Spirits Gala
  • Widowed Village
  • Widowed Pen Pal Program
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • YouTube

Contact Info

Soaring Spirits International
2828 Cochran St. #194
Simi Valley, CA 93065

Email: [email protected]

Phone: 877-671-4071

Soaring Spirits International is a 501(c)3 Corporation EIN#: 38-3787893. Soaring Spirits International provides resources with no endorsement implied.

Copyright © 2023 Widow's Voice. All Rights Reserved.