In the age of distraction it’s extremely difficult to sit quietly and force yourself to think of a single topic. At the minute, I’m consumed by essays as deadlines for many of my class assignments are creeping up and a cloud of stress has stopped abruptly overhead.

It’s as if I’ve become a toddler again; shifting uneasily while sitting at the laptop, standing up for no reason when something pops into my mind; did I leave the immersion heater on? Is the front door locked?, and finding new wonder in everything except the work to be done.

I get up to make tea at least once every 30 minutes, sometimes every 20 minutes depending on the temperature of the house (winter is coming!), even though I’m not thirsty, then I find myself having to use the bathroom at least once every 30 minutes due to the copious amounts of tea being consumed. And I continue the cycle throughout the day, constantly moving around, freeing myself from the shackles of the computer even if only for a few minutes at a time.

But it’s a miracle I get anything done. The phone sits within eye range, a portal to a million exciting worlds, and I begin to think of people I haven’t thought of in years and how I should probably contact them right now. Yet I’m managing to write the odd sentence now and again while wading through pages and pages of contrasting political theories and trying to make sense of them. My mind wanders to memories of life before university and why I decided to put myself through such punishment.

The university offers classes on stress management, but do I attend? Do I heck. I don’t need someone to tell me how to breathe, I say to myself. I was born with the ability to cry, which involves breathing I think, and which I have perfected over the decades to include variations such as whining, whinging and moaning to family members, random people in queues and anyone else unfortunate enough to be caught in the tractor beam when I get into a stressful situation. And if the moaning is done with a dollop of sarcasm then all the better.

It’s my own personal way of dealing with stress – make everyone else as miserable as you! It’s a sure fire way of making you feel better. The Germans call it schadenfreude; deriving pleasure from others’ pain. Now I’m not sure about causing a lot of pain, and certainly not physical pain, but just enough of a moan to make sure people remember how bad life really is so that they sink into the same depressing state as you. After all, a problem shared is a problem halved, so they say. Win-win for all.

My other way of dealing with stress is to eat. Eat like there’s no tomorrow. Because there really could be no tomorrow, now that Donald Trump’s in the White House. When I’m not making tea or standing up for no reason, I think of what I’m going to have for breakfast, lunch and dinner. And my secret pleasure (not so secret anymore) is watching those Facebook videos of various delicious dishes being made. It’s hypnotic, if not a bit unsettling, watching cheese being used in vast quantities for a range of tasty, yet at the same time horrific-looking creations for consumption. Many of them remind me of our friend Donald – so oozing with cheese that I’m not sure what’s actually inside. That’s the last mention of Trump, I promise – schadenfreude, see?

That’s another distraction and source of stress, though; the sheer madness of the world. But it’s one of the reasons I’m studying international relations — I think the world is going to need people to figure all of this madness out. But, you know, as long as there is tea in the world and a friend to moan to/with, we can all get through the stress of living, at least for another day.

Christina Curran is a journalist currently studying a masters in International Relations at Queen’s University, Belfast.