This post is going to be raw, unfiltered, and real. This is me being laid bare.

Devastation, anger, betrayal, relief… those are the emotions i’ve felt in the last week and a half. Watching my future plans just fall apart. I’ve been so strong for so long.. When will someone be strong for me? When will I be held and told it’s ok? I’m angry, i’m SICK of being stronger. I’m so damn tired of it all. I’m damn tired of battling my body. I’m tired of battling doctors for help. I’m tired of not being able to eat. I’m tired of wanting another child, and seeing my hopes and dreams fade away. Most of all I’m tired of my self doubt. I’m tired of worrying i’ll be a burden to someone.  I’m just tired…

No one understands my anger, my fears, my insecurities. I don’t want to be a burden. I want to be a wife. I want to be someone that my spouse is proud of to have as a partner in life. I want to inspire others. I want that, and I deserve it. However, in my lowly depression I CAN’T see that. I can’t see I deserve it. I can’t see how others see me. I can’t see myself as inspiring, or real. I am so scared of not being enough for someone. I’m so scared that years into a marriage or relationship my partner can’t handle it anymore. Will it be when I can’t give them a child? Will it be when i’m dislocating my hip during sex? When i’m hooked to an IV multiple days a week? Will it be when i’m in a wheelchair? I am so terrified of NOT being enough. I want to be enough.

I call my depression my rabbit hole. Falling down the rabbit hole.. It’s never good. Sometimes it’s a quick visit… sometimes it’s longer: days, weeks, months. I feel it swirling around the edge of me. The darkness becomes soul crushing. The depression yearns to take over. I’m stronger than this.. but at the moment, the darkest is tempting. This rabbit hole, this spiraling blackness, we all have it, just varying degrees. Some are masters of their depression, while some succumb to it. It’s our character, our strength that decides that.

Strength…we all have it. Control…we all want it. What if we submit the control? What if we submit the control to acceptance? Acceptance that this battle will not end, but that this battle will not END us! We yearn for control of our life, our emotions, our everything. Really though, we have no control. When I feel out of control of my emotions, I get scared, I tend to “run”.. I tend to become so seized up with worry, and fear I can’t handle and process these emotions. I simply shut down..It’s a defense mechanism. I can’t help it. I try, I try not to shut down, but that swirling darkness… that old peaceful friend of mine.. yeah it’s tempting. The silence, the peace I find there by embracing it is a welcome reprieve from my overwhelming emotions.

Ahh… that swirling darkness, with the taste of yearning, longing, peace.. but it’s fake peace. I know it. You know it. Everyone with depression knows it. However we still welcome it like a comfort blanket. Why? Why do we do this??  Perhaps it’s because we feel no one actually cares how we are? No one wants to hear us yell, scream and cry our feelings out. We need to do that though. We need to purge them. We need to stop faking that we’re ok. It’s ok, to not be ok. We’re so afraid of someone seeing the crack in our armor, we hide it. We’ve become masters at hiding it. I’ve mastered that skill. I’m so tired of hiding it. I’m so tired of faking it. I’m so tired of the lonely darkness swirling around.  Our partners don’t understand, our family doesn’t understand. We do though, we as warriors understand each other’s battle.  That taste of peace we find in the darkness, it calls to us. It sings the song of a siren. It beckons us. Resisting it, it’s not always easy. It’s not always to see the light in the darkness. We can’t see the wonderland through this darkness of a rabbit hole. We, in our swirling peaceful darkness can’t see the light. We need to always remember, light will ALWAYS come. Light will always shine. The sun will always come after the storm.

We all go though ups and downs. We overcome them. We go through relationships, friendships and family issues. How we handle it is what builds our character.  We can fall apart, we can break down, but from that we need to find our strength and rise again. Stronger, and wiser. For we are The Phoenix.