Author: beffypoo1

It’s Fall Y’all. Don’t Forget to Refill Those Meds.

On By beffypoo1In Mental Health1 Comment

Back when I was a younger and what I thought was a happier human living in denial of my mental health issues and pushing all those bad feelings deep deep down, autumn was my favorite season. Change wasn’t so bad, plus look at all the pretty colors! But a lot has changed in the past few years.

Fall is a tough time for a lot of my homies with mental health problems. It is filled with change making it hard as hell for those of us who have a difficult time regulating that type of stuff. Here are just a few of those changes you may identify with.

The weather turns colder and wetter and forces us to spend more time inside. For me that means I do more binge watching while curled under a blanket and get less exercise and vitamin D. It is tough to get off that couch once I am there so I also spend less time with friends and make up a lot more excuses because it is just easier to stay at home. This is super problematic for me because exercise and outside time are a huge recharger for me. Also, despite being painfully introverted I do get a lot of positive energy from time with friends in small doses. When I start to retreat to the couch it takes a toll on my mental health and happiness.

A change that I deal with as a mother is the kids going back to school. I sometimes feel I am in the minority because I love when the kiddos are on summer break. They are more relaxed, less stressed, happier, and just more themselves. Come September when classes start up again the stress level in our house increases monumentally. And I totally get why. These young people are dealing with having all of their time suddenly structured. They have less free time to do what makes them happy, they have homework and after school activities and the stress of having to be “perfect” and do enough so they can someday get into a good college and not ruin their future. Add on to this the social pressure of trying to balance being cool while still making smart choices. Top this all off with raging hormonal changes and I have no fucking clue how they make it through each day. The stress level for teenagers is ridiculous. And I have three in my house. So their stress and moodiness and total departure from their “normal”, mostly happy selves, creates a lot of change in our family dynamic.

The days become shorter. The sun rises later and sets earlier. We see a hell of a lot less of that big happy yellow ball in the sky. This is another thing that contributes to the extra couch time. Who wants to go out when it’s dark? In Minnesota where I live soon it will be dark when we head to work in the morning and dark again when we head home. Less sun equals less Vitamin D and less happiness.

Sickness. Ugh. Autumn is rife with illness in my household. The change in weather upsets our immune systems making us more susceptible to all the new school germs that the kiddos are bringing home. I’m just getting over a respiratory cold from Hell that left me in bed for three days wishing I would just fucking die already.

I’m sure I could go on and on but you get the picture. I’m sure you all have your own changes that you deal with as well.

So how do we get through these seasons of change without doing too much mental damage?

One of the things I try to do (which I am failing at pretty miserably this year) is finding the beauty in the change. It is easiest to do this with the changes in nature. Get out for a hike. Notice the colors and the smells. Take a camera with and snap a few pictures. You’ll get some exercise, some vitamin D and a little mental boost.

Watch that diet. I know when I get depressed I go straight to the junk which only feeds into the yucky feelings and does no favors for your immune system. Make healthy soups and stews. Easy things you can throw in the crockpot that warm you up inside and out. Include lots of veggies. But don’t forget to indulge a little in all of the seasonal apple-y and pumpkin-y sweets.

Make time to spend with friends and family. We all get so busy with all the changes in schedule but it is super important to make time for those we love to recharge our batteries and remember why it is we keep going in this world. It can be tough to find the time but just remember it doesn’t have to be tons of time. Make sure you have dinner with your family a few times a week. Even if it at 4:00 or 9:00. Just commit to the time together. Get a quick coffee or beer with a friend. Even if it is just for 15 minutes in between things for a quick catch up session. The important thing is to not isolate yourself. Because isolation never ends well.

Make self care a priority. Whatever that looks like for you. I like to go to more gentle yoga classes starting in the fall. Gentle stretching in a nice warm room is good for my soul. Find little things that make you happy. Get yourself a fall flavored coffee or tea. Bake a yummy apple dessert and invite some friends over to share it. Or go get lost in the woods for an hour (not literally though). Whatever helps feed your soul.

Refill those fucking meds. Do not under any circumstances forget to take those meds. When I first started taking anti-depressants it was during the fall season and it has helped me immensely to regulate during these times of change. If you have questions about meds talk to your doctor or I’d be happy to sit down and share my personal experience.

I think the most important thing of all is to check on your friends. Especially those you know have a tough time with these transitional seasons. Remind them that you are here. That you care. That they can always count on you. That they are valuable. That you love them. That we need them here.

Because fall is a tough time and I want us all to get out of it alive.

Remember that the bad is temporary. Recognize that there are reasons you are feeling down and you are not alone. It gets better. Always. Just hold on.

I hope you find some beauty and if you are having a tough time and need some help please reach out. To me or someone else.

Love to you all. The unconditional kind.

❤

You Do You. But With Love.

On By beffypoo1In Mental HealthLeave a comment

“You, yourself, as much as anyone else in the entire universe are worthy of your own love and affection (and care).”

Last night at yoga our instructor used this as a sort of mantra throughout our practice. She introduced it at the beginning of practice and returned to it throughout the class having us focus on it as a way to stay in the present and to keep our minds from chattering. It really stuck with me. So much so that it inspired me to write a little bit which I haven’t done in ages.

Self care has been a thing I have worked on a lot as a coping mechanism for my depression and anxiety. It was a concept that was totally foreign to me throughout my life  but something I learned recently through therapy, self help books and blogs. It is something that has been very difficult but with practice and diligence has become more natural. I have learned that I cannot take care of others without first taking care of myself. You can’t pour from an empty vessel or some shit like that.

But an even more difficult concept to grasp for me has been self love. That is something that has been utterly impossible for me in my life. The way that I talk to myself and view myself is, to be honest, shameful. I never have kind words for myself and can rarely find anything remotely positive or likable about me. There is no forgiveness for the mistakes I make and I often keep myself up nights reliving all of the ways that I am a complete and utter fucking failure. I am my greatest critic. Sometimes even possibly my greatest enemy.

Without going into my whole life story and the circumstances I will say that I grew up not feeling loved. My way of dealing with that was to try to earn it. To do everything and to do it well. I was helpful and kind. I was smart and achievement-oriented. I got straight A’s, went to college full time my senior year of high school, graduated with honors, and did all of this while working close to full time from the time I was 16. I helped out at home, tried to never be a burden, cared for everyone and tried to be the perfect daughter/sister/student/everything. But it was never enough. I always felt not good enough, and was often told I was not good enough. So I worked harder, did more. I chased after the love I so desperately needed doing everything in my power to earn it even though nothing I did was ever enough. No accomplishment, no good deed, no act of service was ever enough to get the love I so desperately wanted and needed from those who should have freely given it. And it left a scar. A really fucking big one.

That scar followed me into adulthood where I continued to chase love. I continued to chase perfection sure that it would bring the love of… Who? I didn’t even know anymore. Anyone. Everyone. I desperately needed to be liked and loved by others. But that voice was always there telling me I wasn’t good enough. I never would be. I didn’t deserve to be loved. And I hated myself because of it.

Only recently have I learned some really important things about love. Mostly that no matter what you do you cannot make anyone else love you. Not even the people that you think should love you without condition. No accomplishment, no “doing” will ever make someone love you. The only person in this whole world that you can count on to love you is you. So you have to work on that first. It is super hard but it is possible. And here are some things that have helped me.

First of all when I talk to myself I ask myself “would I say that to a friend?” If the answer is no then I do not say it to myself. I would never tell my friend that they totally fucked up that thing they did today. Or that they sucked at that new thing they tried. Or that they are a total fucking idiot. I would be supportive. I would be kind to them. And I owe the same to myself. It is easy to fall back into the same old self-hate talk but when I frame it this way it makes it easier to practice and get better at.

Another thing I do is apply the same grace I give to everyone else in my life to myself. Over the last few years I have tried to hone my compassion and love for others by truly believing that most people are doing the best they can with what they have been given in any specific circumstance. And so I try to give myself that same kind of grace. So during the quiet times of my day (especially at night while I am lying in bed trying to get to sleep) when my anxiety brain starts to tell me all the things I fucked up that day I quietly tell it that I did my best. I don’t say this as an excuse, it is the honest to goodness truth. Each day my best may look different. Some days it is pretty great and some days it looks like a dumpster fire but I truly believe that I have done my best each and every day. And if I feel like on this specific day my best was a dumpster fire then I let it go and decide that tomorrow I will try harder and maybe do better. After all, no amount of dwelling and beating myself up will change what has already happened. It is done. No going back. All I can do is recognize opportunities for growth, forgive myself, move on, and hopefully do better next time. I try my best to learn from my mistakes but to not dwell on them.

Lastly, I believe people when they say good things about me. I have never in my life been able to take a compliment. I dismiss them and deflect them and most of the time because my self hate runs so deep I do not even register them and forget what the person said within a minute because it just absolutely cannot be true. But my therapist taught me a trick. She had me reframe compliments as gifts. If someone gives you a physical gift you do not use throw it back at them. You graciously accept it. Otherwise you look like an asshole. I started out pausing, considering the compliment and simply saying thank you. Nothing else because that is all I could handle. But now I am to the point where I can genuinely accept their kind words and occasionally remember them later. I appreciate them. And it feels pretty fucking good.

None of this has been easy. It has taken a lot of practice. But it keeps getting just a little bit easier and a little bit more natural and a little bit more like a habit every day. And in time I think it will just be normal life. But for now I will keep working. And keep loving. And keep telling that anxiety voice to shut the fuck up. Because I am worthy of my own love. And I am actually finding out that I am a pretty great person. My worth is not dependent on what other people think of me because they do not know the whole me. Only I do. This life has been one tough bitch and I have survived and even done pretty fucking ok. And I deserve to be loved. And that starts with me.

So I hope you can start to find that love for yourself. Because you deserve it too. Not for anything you do or through any accomplishment but just because we all deserve to be loved. And if you can’t count on anyone else to do it then start with yourself.

But p.s. you can always count on me too.

Love to you all. The unconditional kind.

❤

It Takes Time

On By beffypoo1In Mental HealthLeave a comment

Last weekend I got a chance to see some standup comedy. My hubby absolutely loves it and as a birthday gift I got him tickets to a comedy festival in town. On the first night the headliner was a comic named Gary Gulman. I recognized his name but didn’t place him right away. But as he started his set I realized he had been in an episode of my favorite podcast “the Hilarious World of Depression”. Not only AN episode, but my very favorite episode. I remembered that when I listened to that specific episode a year ago or so it had helped me immensely.

You see many of the episodes of that podcast are with people who have been through depression and anxiety but have it mostly under control. They have come out on the other side and found their ways to manage it, “like a bad back” as Andy Richter says. But when they interviewed Gary Gulman he was still struggling. He had made it through the worst of it, the rock bottom; but he was not in the clear. The episode was a little dark, but for me it was just what I needed. I needed to hear someone that had not made it all the way through. Someone that had made it through the worst but was still fighting every day to keep going on, to get out of bed, to do life. It gave me a connection and some much needed hope.

As I watched Gary’s set that night I remember feeling so fucking happy. He talked a lot about his struggles with this terrible illness. About just how bad it had gotten and at times it was a little dark. It was also both hilarious and hopeful. Because here was this guy who had gone through what I had gone through. Who had been to the depths and had made it out. But it was also realistic, and that is where the hope came from. You see he didn’t just climb out and everything was awesome. It took a lot of fucking time to be okay. It was slow, hard slog through the mud but here he was doing what he loved again. Making jokes and sharing and smiling. He was killing it.

All of this made me reflect on some stuff that I thought may help someone who is still climbing out of that hole.

It has been a year and a half since I hit rock bottom. Since I felt crushed by the hopelessness and emptiness of a two and a half year battle with major depression. Since I was ready to just give up and end it all. Recovery has been a VERY long road.

When I first started to come out of my depression there was not a lot of joy or happiness or even hope. There was just less darkness and emptiness and hopelessness. It is hard to explain. I didn’t feel as awful as I had felt for the last two and a half years but by no means was I living my best life, or even half of it to be honest. And this went on for so fucking long. The extremes of badness started to go away and I kept thinking when will I feel like my old self again? When will I be happy? When will I have another best day ever? When will I feel more than just meh? And as time went on (and on and on) I started to think that the answer would be never.

I figured that this was the new me. It wasn’t terrible. I didn’t feel as dark and void of happiness. I was able to feel some positivity but mostly I just felt “not bad”. I didn’t want to end my life anymore but to be honest I had no strong feelings about living. I was fine with living but I would have been fine with not living too. I didn’t love life or even like it really, it was just a thing that I had to go through. Every single day. Here I was still just going through the motions. As I told one friend, I didn’t really feel good or happy,  I sort of topped off at “okayish”. I figured that the battle I had been through had just taken so much out of me that it had changed me forever and this was me now. And this went on for so damn long. In hindsight I didn’t feel worried about it because compared to how I had been feeling for so fucking long this was a picnic.

Then  I woke up one day not too long ago and realized that over the last few weeks I had started feeling more like the old me. The me before I struggled so mightily. Before this illness took my spark. It has been nothing close to the “every day is the best day ever” Beth that I used to be, but I have noticed myself finding more joy, more appreciation, more happiness in the world around me. I find myself being less consumed by the negativity in the world and being able to draw more on the positivity of those around me. I have had glimpses of these feelings over the last year and a half but they are becoming more consistent now. They are starting to feel more normal. They are becoming life.

And it is such a fucking relief.

I don’t think I will ever be the same person I used to be. I know that what I have been through has changed me. The therapy, the meds, the past traumas that I have confronted, the relationships I have ended, the steps I have taken to be healthier; all of these things have changed me. I will never be that “silver lining”/”find the best in every situation”/”every day is sunshine and rainbows” person again. But that is okay.

This different Beth is strong. She is a survivor. She knows the world can be a dark and utterly shitty place. But she knows she can make it. She knows that there is light if you can get through the darkness.

I know I will always struggle with ups and downs and darkness, I am not naive enough to think it is all in the rearview mirror. But I have hope that it will never be as dark as it was. And that I will remember that even if it feels like forever I will eventually be in the light again and find some joy. That I will never again lose all of my hope.

If you have hit rock bottom and are making your way out of the fog I hope this helps. Remember that it takes time. Sometimes a little and sometimes so fucking much. But little by little you will make your way back to a new normal. It may not be what it used to be but it will be good. And one day you will wake up and realize that things are finally turning around. And you will be happy that you decided to stick around. I am (FINALLY) getting there and you will too.

Thank you Gary Gulman for helping me when I needed it a year ago. And thank you for helping me last week to realize that things ARE getting better. Thank you for giving me that connection. Thank you for being you. You are a fucking treasure.

Also thank you for coming out after the show to meet your fans and letting me personally thank you for kind of saving my life. And thanks for the hug. Hugs are my favorite.

To everyone out there reading this, if you need help reach out. Make a connection. Remember that it gets better. We need you here.

Love to you all. The unconditional kind.

❤

 

 

 

My Favorite Words

On By beffypoo1In Mental HealthLeave a comment

Wild Geese

by Mary Oliver

You do not have to be good.
You do not have to walk on your knees
For a hundred miles through the desert, repenting.
You only have to let the soft animal of your body
love what it loves.
Tell me about your despair, yours, and I will tell you mine.
Meanwhile the world goes on.
Meanwhile the sun and the clear pebbles of the rain
are moving across the landscapes,
over the prairies and the deep trees,
the mountains and the rivers.
Meanwhile the wild geese, high in the clean blue air,
are heading home again.
Whoever you are, no matter how lonely,
the world offers itself to your imagination,
calls to you like the wild geese, harsh and exciting —
over and over announcing your place
in the family of things.

This poem helped me through some incredibly hard times. I still tear up a little every single time I read it. Partially from the power of the words and partially from the memory of the pain I was feeling at the time when it helped me most.

We are so lucky to have people in this world who can use their words to bring us comfort and peace. Who can help us feel just a little bit less alone with their words. To remind us of the beauty and wonder that exist in this world even when it feels dark and grey.

Mary Oliver was one of the best and I am so glad that I discovered her words at a time when I needed them. I am so glad that she shared her outlook and her beautiful, powerful words with the world. I am so glad she helped me through one of the darkest times of my life.

Remember that your words have power too. They have the ability to help another human feel connected, or necessary, or beautiful, or loved. They do not have to be beautiful and fancy. They just need to be kind and honest.

Kind words are a thing the world could use more of right now.

I’ll leave you with one more peace of advice from Mary:

Instructions for living a life:

Pay attention.

Be astonished.

Tell about it.

The world lost a wise beautiful soul today. Rest in peace Mary Oliver, you will be missed.

Love to you all. The unconditional kind.

❤

 

 

New Year, Same Me

On By beffypoo1In Mental Health2 Comments

During the time of year when “New Year, New Me” bullshit is plastered all over social media news feeds and the whole world is shouting at us all of the ways we need to change I have a radical declaration to make… “New Year, Same Me.”

Why this declaration you may ask? Because I am enough.

Humans have an obsession at this time of year with how we need to change. As a person who has spent most of the last year and a half learning to love myself for who I am (no small feat after a lifetime of self-doubt and self-hate) this kind of environment used to set me up for a spiral. I would spend the last week or two of December thinking of all of the ways I was not enough and nit-picking the things I needed to change to be “better”. To fit in. To be more liked and accepted. To make sure nobody knew how broken and hurt I was deep down inside.

But no more. I have decided to love the person that I am, no matter the cracks and broken pieces. Rough edges and all. All of the therapy and self discovery
I have done has led me to see that the things that I thought had broken me have actually made me into the person that I am. I have learned that all of the things I used to look at as liabilities can actually be considered strengths in the right circumstances with the proper amount of work and love. That I am strong and amazing and have so much to offer. That I am a fierce fucking warrior. And that anyone who doesn’t like me for me is not my kind of people and that I need not waste my time or energy on them. Life is too fucking exhausting already without chasing other people’s approval.

I do not need to change who I am. Not for anyone.

Lest you think I have some false sense of self-perfection let me say something else. I am a work in progress. Though I do not want to change who I am at my core I do want to keep working on being the best and healthiest me I can be. While my experiences and my life have shaped who I am I can still work on healthier reactions to situations and better coping mechanisms for the tough times. I can still decide who I do or do not want in my life. I can choose to surround myself with people that enrich my life instead of make it more painful and difficult. I can choose to nourish my body in a healthy way and I can choose to stay healthy both physically and emotionally. Changing habits is not changing who I am.

So as is often the case it is a matter of balance. I will continue to work to find that balance to make the tweaks to be the healthiest me without compromising and changing who I am. It is difficult sometimes but it is absolutely worth it.

I found this quote today:

“When I loved myself enough, I began leaving whatever wasn’t healthy. This meant people, jobs, my own beliefs and habits – anything that kept me small. My judgement called it disloyal. Now I see it as self-loving” Kim McMillen

So my advice to you and myself this year is don’t make any resolutions to change. Make a resolution to love yourself for who you are. If you do that then all the good stuff will follow. You don’t need to change a damn thing because you are pretty fucking great just the way you are. You just don’t realize it.

You are enough. You are so fucking enough.

And don’t you forget it.

Love to you all. The unconditional kind.

❤

 

 

 

It’s All Relative

On By beffypoo1In Mental Health1 Comment

I had a med check last week to make sure my anti-depressants are still being effective. During the appointment the doc asked me all the normal generic mental health questions that they ask to assess your level of depression and risk. Not the super intense ones a therapist would ask but just the easy ones… Are you sleeping too little, too much? Eating too little, too much? Feeling like a failure? Feeling no energy? Feeling out of control fidgety? Feeling like hurting yourself? Along with a couple others. I thought I was doing okay as I answered the questions but when the doctor compared my score to last May he was a little concerned. My score had gone up quite a bit. Not a dangerous level of up but enough to make a difference.

I explained to him that it is the holidays and this is to be expected. I don’t have happy holidays I just try to survive them. I deal with a lot of grief at the holidays and in the last year there have been massive changes to my life with my family and friends. It is also the birthday of my sister this month which is an especially difficult day of grief even after all the years that have passed since I lost her. I grieve for the things I never had with both her and my childhood. It is all made more difficult with the constant family-centric questions that make me feel uncomfortable because nobody wants to hear the real answers and it just makes me long for things I do not have or have never had and brings up trauma to re-live once again. Sometimes the holidays seem like a mental war-zone

I assured my doc that compared to the last 3 years or so this holiday season has seemed like a picnic so far. That I am usually on the verge of suicidal or catatonic depending on the year and that right now I don’t feel nearly that bad despite my slightly concerning score. We talked about being on top of things and I told him I would keep up my self care strategies and make an appointment with my therapist if I needed to. I have these tools to call on now. He renewed my prescription and I went on my way.

Thinking about it the next couple of days I realized how relative our mental health can be. Depending on life circumstance and time of year one person’s moderate depression can seem like a fucking day at the park. Don’t get me wrong. I do not feel like dancing in the streets right now. I feel an undercurrent of self doubt and anxiety and the last couple of days the feeling of being perched on the edge of a cliff leading to the inevitable holiday spiral has been palpable. But I’m holding on for now. Holding my broken pieces together if slightly precariously. I’m keeping my head up and trying to find joy in the things I am doing in the present with my children who love this season. I am breathing and trying to stay out of the past as much as possible. And so far I am okay.

So if the holidays are tough for you consider this a reminder to practice self-care. To take it easy if you need to. To survive. Reach out to someone if you need to. Do what you need to do to make it through. Because sometimes the holidays just aren’t happy. And that is okay.

Be gentle with yourself out there. And remember it is okay to not be okay. Just keep doing your best.

Love to all of you. The unconditional kind.

❤

 

 

 

 

Using My Mental Toolbox

On By beffypoo1In Mental Health2 Comments

This time of year is hard and it is very easy for me to find myself backpedaling with my mental health. Part of it is that there is just so much change. Change in seasons and weather. Change in the amount of sunshine vs darkness. Change in my children’s lives with back to school and trying new activities and getting used to new schedules and routines. I am notoriously bad with change. Add to that the negativity of news and elections and money stress and it is easy for me to start sliding.

It all starts with little things. I start eating like shit. I stop sleeping because my mind won’t turn off. I lose interest in doing things that make me happy because I am just so fucking exhausted from the lack of sleep. So I stop going to my yoga classes and I quit running. I spend more time on the couch. I disconnect more from life.

My brain takes this opportunity to start to lie to to me. It starts with little niggling insecurities and moves on to bigger and bigger sweeping generalizations. Eventually I am a terrible mom. I am a terrible wife. I am a terrible friend. I am a terrible human. I am useless. I start rapidly descending down the rabbit hole of self doubt.

In the past this kind of downward spiral would lead to suicidal thoughts and ideations. I would think that I am so awful I don’t deserve to live and really everyone else is better off without me anyways. I’d be doing the world a favor if I wasn’t here anymore. Down, down, down.

But I do not find myself there this fall. At least not at the bottom of the hole.

I am struggling, true. I thought I was getting pretty bad, yes. I started fearing the worst was coming again, absolutely. But then I remembered something. I remembered my toolbox. All of the tricks and tips I have gained from therapy. Sort of my mental first aid kit.

I remembered to stop and breathe and take an inventory of sorts. I am still going to yoga albeit not as frequently. I am running occasionally, when I feel like I really want to, but not constantly like a compulsion. I have a weekly date with my bestie and I am still leaving the house to do things with my hubby. I baked cookies the other day. I have not walled myself off emotionally or physically from the outside world. I am still taking pictures of nature and recognizing beauty. I am still seeing color; not everything is grey.

Fuck you brain. You fucking liar.

From there I can pep talk myself into making some small changes. I will start eating better. Less sugar, more veggies. I will make it a point to get to yoga 2 times a week. I will not pressure myself to run if I don’t feel like it. I will do those fucking dishes in the sink. I will volunteer at the kiddos’ school. Baby steps. Little things.

I have to remind myself that I don’t have to do ALL of the things. Doing some of the things is totally acceptable and really probably normal. Also everything doesn’t have to be awesome all the time. Sometimes it is okay to be just okay. And sometimes it is okay to not be okay. Neither of those things is a failure. It doesn’t have to be all or nothing.

It doesn’t have to be all or nothing. This is the thing I will struggle with all the way to my grave. But I am learning. Slowly.

So today I will go to the pharmacy and pick up my refill of my meds and remember that I am taking steps to be okay. Lots and lots of little steps. I am in a much better place than I was a year ago. I am okay. And that is okay.

It feels okay to be okay.

If you are struggling I encourage you to dip into your mental first aid kit and take an inventory. Be gentle with yourself. Remind yourself that it is okay to just be okay. And if you feel like you are absolutely not okay and you find that inventory to be empty then please reach out and get some help. Contact a friend or better yet a therapist. Get the help you need so that next time you start down the rabbit hole you don’t go quite so deep.

Love to you all. The unconditional kind ❤

It’s All Okay

On By beffypoo1In Mental Health2 Comments

Today is World Mental Health Day. I am glad we have a day devoted to the work of stopping the stigma but honestly I try to make every day Mental Health Day.

One year ago yesterday I sat in my therapist’s office in so much emotional pain that I am pretty sure I almost made her cry with my mere presence. The pain seemed to emanate from me in waves. I was sure that I was never going to be okay. I had lost all hope. I had hit rock bottom. Despite all the work we had done we decided that we had tried enough other things and it was time to try some meds. To me it was a last ditch effort. I was already considering suicide and if the meds didn’t work it would be the last straw.

This year I am in a very different place.

The last couple of weeks have been incredibly difficult for me. I have been reliving some pretty traumatic shit from my past, trying to figure some stuff out, and been stressed out about money and mom stuff. I have been focused on my lack of faith in humanity and I am feeling the pain of those around me in a way that has been crushing my soul. Add to that the fact that it has been raining for about 9 days and I haven’t seen the sun and I can hardly believe I am functioning. Yet here I am.

It is not easy. My life never will be with the constant presence of depression and anxiety in the back of my mind. There are many days where I wish I wasn’t here but I no longer think that maybe I should just step in front of a truck when I am out for a run and end it all.

The biggest difference has been that I got help. Somebody told me that it was okay to not be okay and that there were ways to make it better and I tried it. I went to therapy and learned about self care. I learned that the shit that happened to me when I was younger may have shaped the way that I am now but that it does not define me. That with a lot of work I can rewire some of those parts of my brain and do better. I learned that I really haven’t done so bad with the totally shitty hand I was dealt.

I also learned that chemicals play a huge part in how I feel. My brain doesn’t work the way a “normal” brain does. It needs a little help. And that help is readily available at any drugstore with a prescription from my doctor. And that does not make me a failure. It is just a chronic illness that should be treated as such.

All of this is why it is so fucking important to talk about this stuff. If nobody had told me that I was not alone I would not still be here. If I hadn’t gone to therapy and learned that my childhood circumstances caused so much of the fucked up brokenness in my life and that it was possible to make it feel better I would not still be here. If countless people had not shared that they too were medicated and that it was not a failure but a way to treat an illness I would not still be here.

We have to stop the stigma of talking about our mental health so people no longer think  they are alone. So they will know there is help available. That life can be better. We have to keep making it ok.

So take care of yourself today and everyday. Whatever that looks like for you. Go to therapy, take your meds, practice your self care. And talk to others about it. Reach out to someone who is struggling and share your story with them. Hell, reach out to strangers and share your story. Make this so normal that nobody ever has the thought that they are some fucked up freak show that doesn’t deserve to live. Because we all deserve to live. And we all deserve to want to live.

It is okay to not be okay. We do not always have to feel happy and that is fine. Being depressed is okay. Having anxiety is okay. Dealing with any other slew of mental illnesses is okay. There are so many others like us. We are not alone.

Join in me in not just stopping the stigma but smashing it to pieces. Because sometimes it feels really good to break shit.

And don’t forget that you are important and necessary in this world. I am glad you are here. And so are a bunch of other people. Just keep swimming. And reach out if you need help.

Love to you all, the unconditional kind.

❤

 

Be Gentle Out There

On By beffypoo1In Mental HealthLeave a comment

This morning I sat at my dining room table and wept as I scrolled through facebook and had to explain the effects of trauma on the brain to another asshole who has never experienced anything remotely resembling trauma in their life but still managed to think he was an expert on the subject. I am tired in my soul of this. There is a wealth of science based information on trauma and the brain. We live in a world where the internet is literally at your fingertips and you can choose to educate yourself on any topic in a matter of minutes but people still sit behind their keyboards and spew hatred and ignorance at others who are experiencing deep pain and suffering. And right now with current events in this country there is an abundance of pain and suffering. An abundance of people having to relive their trauma each and every day. My heart aches for each and every one of them.

I have a lot of experience with trauma in my life. Trust me when I say I have experienced more than my fair share. And each event has left its mark on me. Each one has shaped the way that I experience and react to events in my life. Mostly for the worse. These traumas have been a source of so much frustration and pain and suffering for me. They are really the gift that keeps on giving in that way. Not only do you get to live through the traumatic event but the effects fuck with you for a lifetime. Making it impossibly hard to react like a normal human being to a totally normal conflict or situation. Making you seem like a complete fucking lunatic when even the smallest thing goes wrong. Making you feel like your entire life is spiraling into a giant flaming pile of garbage because of one small hiccup.

I could write multiple posts about my own personal traumas and the way that I have dealt with them but that is not the point of this post. My point for this post is that trauma is complicated and each person experiences it and processes it differently. Each brain deals with it in a different way but I think the main goal of our brain is to try to protect us from it as best as it can. That looks different for each person and varies depending on a number of factors like their resiliency and ability to process. It depends on the severity of the trauma and the age it was experienced. It even depends on the type of trauma. Everyone’s experience is different.

Every single person is different.

Some of us may have similarities but there is no cookie cutter response to trauma. We are all doing the best we can. We are all trying to make it through one more fucked up day without throwing our arms in the air and giving up because it is just too fucking hard to keep doing this over and over. We are all just trying like hell to learn from another failed interaction, response, friendship, or relationship. We are all trying not to make the same mistake again and again and again. We are trying not to believe the voice in our head telling us that no matter how good things seem right now there is no way they can stay this way because life is chaos and happiness cannot last. We are all just trying to do better. To pick up the pieces over and over. And it is indescribably hard with this monster riding shotgun in our brain. Sometimes impossibly hard. But we keep going.

And do you know what helps most? I will give you a hint… It is not criticism and judgement, both of which I have seen in abundance over the last few weeks. It is your compassion. It is your love. It is your understanding. It is your offers of help and your willingness to learn about us. It is your gentleness. Your kindness.

I want to share that with all of the traumas I have experienced in my life the memories that I carry with me vary from each event. Almost none of them do I remember in vivid detail. Most are missing huge pieces, especially locations and time. I couldn’t pinpoint the age I was or the even the year that they happened for most. The one thing that I remember about each and every trauma my brain has allowed me to remember are the feelings associated with them. The fear, the terror, the hopelessness, the anger. These are seared into my brain and they are what flood my senses when a song or a smell or a word or a voice or a memory triggers them and makes me re-live them.

So I ask you this… Do not dismiss somebody’s experience, their pain, their truth because you cannot understand. Because their memories of an event do not check off the neat little boxes of what you think they should remember. Because their reaction to the event is not how you think you would have handled it. I guarantee you they have done the very best they could do in an impossibly unfair and shitty situation. The kind of situation that I pray you never have to go through. That nobody should ever go through. Their brain has dealt with this situation the best way that it could to try to protect them. And your judgement is not necessary or helpful.

I encourage all of you to be gentle with each other. You have no idea what each person you are interacting with is dealing with. What they have carried with them for a lifetime. What they may be hiding or masking. What kind of pain may be present under the surface at all times. The enormous amount of work they have put in to make it to this point. The setbacks that they may be encountering. The constant fear that they may be living with. Think about your words, your actions, your judgements.

And if you are a survivor of trauma in this current shitstorm please be gentle with yourself. Give yourself grace and love. Practice your self care. Think about setting up an extra therapy appointment. And for fucks sake stay out of the comment sections. That shit is not doing anybody any good right now.

Most of all remember that you are important in this world and we need you.

Love to you all, the unconditional kind.

❤

 

 

 

 

#thisiswhatdepressionlookslike

On By beffypoo1In Mental Health2 Comments

 

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Today my Facebook memories popped up with pictures from a year ago. It was a hike in the woods with my hubby. It was a beautiful fall day with my favorite person on my favorite piece of trail in Minnesota. I was happy in that moment. Enjoying the company and the beauty of nature. Enjoying a respite from the feelings of low-grade (and sometimes high-grade) depression I had been feeling for years. For a couple of hours I dared to think that maybe this was the beginning of better times. The beginning of an upswing of happiness. Little did I know that after this hike I wouldn’t be happy again for a very long time.

Today was the day a year ago that started the spiral that almost ended my life. While I was in the woods enjoying my day something terrible had happened. Something that would trigger me in a way I had no idea was even possible. Something that would cause me to spiral so out of control that I thought my only option to end the pain I was feeling was to die. I am choosing not to share the event that triggered me because it involves others that may not want their story shared and honestly the details don’t matter. The point of this post is to share that you never really know how much a person is struggling.

For two weeks after this day I became more and more lost in myself. In my dark thoughts. In my feelings of being not enough, of being a burden, of being too broken to fix. In my thoughts that this world was broken beyond repair. In my empathic feelings of everyone else’s pain around me that I could not seem to escape. It happened so quickly yet to me it felt like forever. I think that some people around me noticed something was off but nobody, not even my closest friends or husband knew exactly how bad it was. And most people continued thinking everything was just fine.

I remember an interaction with someone at work from those dark weeks. It was a hello in the hallway with my trademark winning fake-smile. My co-worker said something about how my smile just always lit up the whole place, that I seemed like one of then happiest people he knew. I was literally thinking of killing myself. I’m pretty sure I went straight to the bathroom to cry. This was not an uncommon interaction in those two weeks and I couldn’t figure out why nobody could see the pain I was in.

I won’t say my presence on social media, and in real life for that matter, was fake but I always tried to keep things positive so I didn’t always share hard truths. I didn’t want to bring people down. I think a lot of people do this, not realizing how helpful it is to be raw and honest. Not realizing how much our experiences can help someone else to realize they are not alone. That others are in fact struggling with the same things. Knowing you are not alone is not a happy thought, but it does help. It helps to know you are not some freak. Some broken piece of trash. Most importantly it can help us to see that it does get better.

There was a movement on social media a while back where people used the hashtag #thisiswhatdepressionlookslike. The point was to illustrate that no matter how a person looks on social media or in their day to day life it does not necessarily reflect how they are feeling inside. Most people who are struggling are wearing a mask of happiness to cover up their dark feelings and I was no different. Sometimes our masks are very convincing.

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This is a picture of me the morning of the beginning of what was almost the end. Less than 2 weeks after this picture was taken (and the one at the beginning of this post) I was considering and very near attempting suicide.

This is what depression looks like. It is not always crying 24 hours a day. It is not always binging on the couch. It is not always voluntary solitary confinement. Though those things do happen, most people do not see them. They see the fake smiles. The compassion, the caring for others, the kindness. They see the smiles and fake happiness that we put out in the world because we don’t want everyone to know how broken we are. Because we don’t want anyone to worry about us. Because we don’t feel worthy of it.

When I dug out of the hole I was in I decided to share my story and my experiences with depression, anxiety, trauma and mental illness. I decided that putting on a fake smile and hiding the real me was not doing anyone any good. It has been difficult but also amazing. There are days where I wonder if people think I am crazy or whiny or just plain negative but there are also days where I have had people tell me that my sharing has helped them to hold on and keep trying. Sometimes it feels odd in a regular conversation to talk about therapy or meds or any other regular part of my life and sometimes I get odd looks when I speak of these things so naturally and nonchalantly. But this is how we stop the stigma. This is how we make it ok. And if I get a few weird looks or some people who don’t want to talk to me anymore I think that it is 100% worth it.

Let’s continue to talk about these things like they are normal. Because they are. When someone asks you how you are doing try telling the truth. It feels weird at first but eventually it becomes normal. And that is a magical feeling.

Most of all check on your friends. Especially the ones that seem okay. Especially the strong ones. Because those are the ones that are usually struggling. Let it be know that you are there and you care and that when you ask how they are you want the truth. Make sure they know you are prepared for truth and that you love them no matter what. Sometimes that can be the one thing that makes a world of difference in the middle of the darkness.

Remember it gets better. I am living proof of that. It is not always easy but it is worth it. I am so glad that each and every one of you are here. We need you.

Love to all of you. The unconditional kind.

❤