The house was finally quiet and I didn’t know what to do with myself in it

Dear Delyara, That happens to me more often than I admit. I spend all day wanting silence, and then when it comes, I sometimes stand in the middle of it like someone who has been handed a room they don’t quite trust. It’s as if my system has become so used to interruptions that uninterrupted space feels almost suspicious for the first few minutes. Last night the children were asleep, my husband was out for an hour, and there was nothing urgent to do. I walked from the kitchen to the living room, then to the hallway, then back again, unable to settle into the gift of it. Eventually I sat down with a blanket and a biscuit and let the strangeness pass. But I noticed it. That’s what I’m trying to do more now: notice what overstimulation has trained into me.