Tag: relationship

Down the Rabbit Hole..

On By LivingWithDysIn anxiety, Be Empowered, Burden, Confidence, depression, health, hope, Live, love, never give up, relationships, self esteem, Self Worth, struggles1 Comment

depression

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. 

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From a child’s eyes…

On By LivingWithDysIn Be Empowered, caregiver, Confidence, depression, health, hope, Live, love, motherhood, never give up, relationships, self esteem, Self Worth, struggles, UncategorizedLeave a comment

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Hope you all are well!! I’ve been busy with summer break and had a few health issues. Hopefully we’re heading into right direction now!

This post I wanted to do something different. My son is super excited to be a part of this!  He has such a heart of gold. He’s so compassionate, understanding and just amazing. He is a big help. When we go out to eat, he asks the waiter about peanut oil, and such due to my severe peanut allergy. He makes sure it’s safe. He’s my little big helper. I see he gets upset sometimes when I can’t do things other moms can. I can’t walk through Disney, or go play soccer with him. I can’t go sit at the beach all day due to my heat intolerance.

As much as I know he’s a happy child, I really wanted to know his view on all this. How he sees it. So I sat him down and did an interview with him. He’s super excited to be apart of this. He’s also wanting to record a video, which we will be doing today or tomorrow and uploading. Without further ado, here’s his answers.. Here’s what it’s like from a child’s eyes..

From a child’s view..

1) When I first got sick, and had to adjust to doing things, how did you feel about that? I got sad, because you couldn’t do fun stuff with me anymore.

2) Have you often felt overwhelmed? If so, how do you deal with it? Sometimes. 

3) Do you ever feel angry? If so, why? Yes, Because you’re always tired, we can’t ride bikes or play soccer.

4) What is the hardest thing you’ve had to face in having a mom that is chronically ill? That you’re always tired. That we can’t go to Disney or the beach. That you can’t walk around fun places. Even if you use a wheelchair, I don’t care, I just want to go to fun places with you.

5) Do you prefer when I shield you from the bad days? Or do you want the truth of how things are? Sometimes I would prefer you to lie about the bad days, sometimes be honest. If you could give parents and kids new to this any advice, what would it be? For kids, Journal your feelings. Be honest about how you feel. Adjust to doing things at home. We play board games on bad days, we read together, watch. movies. We do what we can together.

For Parents: Your child will get angry, but understand their feelings, and talk them through it. Find things to do at home together that’s low energy. Make memories together. You don’t have to go somewhere to make good memeories.

6) If you could tell me anything about how you’ve seen me struggle with my body, what would it be?? You’re a good mom, you do everything you can for me. You make sure i’m happy. And You need to use your walker more, dad says so too.

7) Do you know how much I love you? Yes, I do.

 

Well, that was enlightening. He’s wise beyond his years. He’s honest, and understanding. We trying to hide things from our kids, to protect them, but maybe that’s leading to more anger, more resentment. We should open a dialogue with them about it. Explain what we can and can’t do. Most importantly, make memories together. He’s right, you don’t have to go places to make memories with them. We do movie days/nights. We play silly games on the iPad. We play board games. We find ways to create those memories that we will both cherish.

I know our health can take a lot from us, but it’s not just us that it’s affecting. Often times we push our bodies to exhaustion, pain and till we simply fall. We need to stop doing that. That does more harm than good. We need to listen to our bodies, we need to adjust what we do to be within our limitations. We need to adjust and adapt to what we do to have spoons to make these precious memories with our kids. I know it’s not easy, I know there will be trial and tribulations. There will also be laughter and joy. Our kids don’t need expensive things, or expensive trips. They need us, they need our attention, and time. Simple things can make great memories.

 

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Going Ghost..Don’t do it.

On By LivingWithDysIn anxiety, Burden, Confidence, depression, emotions, friendships, grief, health, hope, Live, love, mental health, never give up, relationships, self esteem, Self Worth, strugglesLeave a comment

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This is going to be raw, deep, and i’ve held it in for so long, I need to tell it.

Two years ago I went “ghost” as my best friend calls it. She had just been through hell, she needed me, and I just fell of the radar. I wasn’t the friend that I should have been for her.  I was going through such a dark time emotionally and mentally. Instead of leaning on my friends, I just pushed everyone away. “Going Ghost” caused me to lose one of my closest friends, and nearly lose my best friend. It’s now 2 years later, and I’m still recovering from losing my friend, and from my friendships changing..

I had been dealt a blow with my health, told i’d be an idiot to have another child, that I need to get a hysterectomy. That i’d eventually end up in a wheelchair. That my immune system was weaker than we thought. I shut down. I became angry, bitter, depressed. It was probably one of the darkest moments in my life.  My family rallied around me, told me not to shut them out, not to shut my friends out. They all tried to get me to see the light, but I couldn’t. I was in a never ending battle with anger, grief and feelings of being a burden. The darkness was soul crushing. Constant drowning in emotions I couldn’t understand or even verbalize.

Being a burden..i’ve said that more times than I can count to my family, my friends.. I’ve thought they deserve so much more than this sick person, draining them mentally. They didn’t need a burden. We’ve all thought that in this journey. This diagnosis, whatever diagnosis you have, we’ve all felt that way at some point. We’re not a burden, never think that. My biggest piece of advice, take to your spouse, your family, your friends when you start to feel that way. Listen to them. Share your worries, fears, goals. You are NOT your illness. It doesn’t define you.

Grief… We all deal with grief differently. We all grieve different things. Those of us that can’t work, we grieve that, or not being able to walk, have children, that extreme changes in our lives. These are all life changing things, these are all things we can experience grief over. Don’t let it consume you. Please. I did, and it caused so much damage.

I put up a front, I pretended i was fine, my dad saw right through it, so did my boyfriend. Finally everything came to a head. I missed important things in my best friend’s life. I can’t ever get that back, I can’t ever get a do over. That’s something that sticks with you. I decided to seek counseling. Through my sessions with my counselor, I learned so much. I learned coping skills, I learned that leaning on your friends is an amazing thing, friends are there, they love you. I learned I can’t control everything, I can’t shut people out like I was. More importantly, I learned it’s OKAY to grieve your old life, grieve who you were, and what you could do, but that you should rise from the ashes like a Phoenix.

We always try to protect others from our moods, our bad days. That doesn’t help, that in a sense can make things worse. Shutting people out hurts not just you. I look back and realize had I let my friends in, let them know the darkness swirling, they would have cared! They would have been there. Instead I acted like I was a burden and shut them all out. I can never apologize enough to those I hurt during that time, to those I lost their friendship over it, it’ll always be something etched in my heart. All I can say is that I wish I could have done it differently, but when you’re in such a dark place, you see NO OTHER options.

Depression, anxiety, anger, grief.. We in this community experience these. We need to not shut people out. We need to not feel ashamed for feeling these emotions. Going thought the motions won’t help, it’ll drag you further down. Lean on those closest to you, reach out to me if you need to, but please don’t bottle it all up. It will eat at you, it will hurt you. It’s ok to feel broken, it’s ok to feel pain, anger, bitterness. Let it strengthen you, let it transform you from the ashes into a beautiful soaring Phoenix. You are a warrior, you are beautiful, strong, amazing. YOU are YOU!

 

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