Picked up a random poetry book From the crowded shelf. Quick easy hour read: Delight and wonder. Then, Found…
Devastating Disappointment
I have been expectantly waiting for two weeks to get my new prescription glasses so that I can stop wearing this “lovely” blue patch over my still healing eye (a month ago, I had emergency retina detachment surgery.).
Today, I saw my eye surgeon who told me my eye is healing good, but it will be two months at least before my vision is fully restored. Two more months of not driving myself to work. Two more months of disjointed vision.
I called my eye doctor’s office to see if my glasses had arrived only the Eye Tech told me there had been a mistake so she had sent them back to be started over again. The company who makes the glasses will try to process it “ASAP” since they made the mistake, but it still might be another two weeks before I can pick them up.
I honestly cannot handle wearing this patch anymore.
There’s nothing I can do.
Disappointment is an understatement. I feel totally helpless and frustrated.
How do you handle such feelings, especially disappointment?
It seems no matter how much gratitude we try to focus on each day, there is always something that springs up to bring us down again.
After I had my little cry, I resigned myself to being defiant. I went with my daughters to their Girl Scout community service event. I purposefully did not wear my eye patch. Of course, the resulting squinting I did gave me a headache. Looking through my left eye is like looking under water towards the surface; it is constantly waving around.
Now, I am trying to find something positive out of my situation.
Psychologytoday.com author, Beverly D. Flaxington, in an article titled, “Dealing with Diasappointment How to Dust Off and Move On,” explains, “If you are wired to expect the best, and then you are let down and don’t get it, disappointment and letdown can actually trigger a physiological response in the brain if you have a tendency toward depression anyway. So, when you find it harder to get up and brush yourself off and start over, it might be because your brain is physically preventing you from doing so!”
Flaxington suggests the following four strategies to overcome disappointment:
- “Accept that disappointment happens to everyone – and it happened to you.”
- “Instead of sitting in your state indefinitely, once you have allowed yourself to acknowledge that you are in good company, start the process of reframing. “
- “Change your self-talk.”
- “Make a plan”
I challenge you to try these tips the next time you are disappointed. My plan is to move forward despite my letdown and try to reframe my situation.
Yes, I can only see out of one eye now. Still, at least I know this is temporary, two months instead of permanently.
Yes, I cannot drive myself to work or to appointments. On the bright side, at least I get to spend extra time with my husband as he drives me. We are enjoying our conversations that we normally would not have on our way to and from work.
What will you do to find the positive when everything you’ve hoped for fails?
Here’s a couple of books to try out from Amazon:
Dealing with Disappointmentby John Hindley
Self-Talk: Change Your Mind, Change Your Life by Sally H. Hull
As always, let me know if you have any strategies or suggestions to share! I would love to get comments from my readers!