Cactus 1:0 Miso Monster

I think Cactus would be the first to agree that she's not a morning person. It's the first week back at school, back to early nights and early mornings, the rush to get out of the door on time and the stress of sitting in the car for 20 minutes with her living, breathing family. However many times I suggest getting things ready the night before, or actually getting out of bed and getting dressed, or putting things in bags and shoes on feet before sitting down to open SnapChat rather than 5 minutes after we should have left, or making a hot drink in time to actually drink it, or looking out of the window to see if it's raining rather than huffing back into the house to get a coat when it turns out that it is... I don't think we have ever had a totally stress free school morning. By the time we get in the car we're all frazzled, and the Miso Monster is an unwelcome, unwieldy passenger taking up too much space and oxygen.

But this morning was different. Cactus and I had an interesting talk last night about adrenaline (it had been mentioned in a school biology lesson, and the bit about "fight or flight" had struck a chord with her). She'd realised that her fight or flight response was often more extreme than other people's. I managed to steer the conversation round to misophonia and we talked about how adrenaline feeds the Monster, and how reducing anxiety and doing something distracting or calming could help the adrenaline level to subside. Then we went to an exercise class together, which was both distracting as it required full concentration, and calming as we were completely knackered afterwards!

This morning she was up, dressed, fully equipped and in the car on time without drama. The drive to school was uneventful, my hand movements (remind me to tell you about misokinesia some time) earning me a glare in the rear view mirror rather than the usual verbal assault. I can't stress how huge a deal this was for all of us, and I was so proud of her for taking control that I couldn't help mentioning it once her brothers were out of earshot.

"Hey, well done this morning. Did that feel better than usual?"

"It was alright"

"Seriously, you were really chilled, well done"

"Well, I was until you mentioned it!"

And with a sigh and an eyeroll, she was off. Seems I'm still getting the hang of this game.