I’ve been trying to be vocal about my mental health struggles over the last year. Trying to be a voice for those who don’t feel strong enough to speak on their own; to help others seek the help they need, too. I made a big step in my life – I’ve been in therapy for a little over a month now. So far, its been a lot of the usual background jabber, so its brought up a lot of extensive, deep-seated issues. “Not too bad,” I thought. Silly me.
All the emotions, all at once. Mix it in with how I was already feeling; lost, confused, unsure of myself and future, and you’ve got a whole mess. At exactly the same time, I feel like the most determined, self-assured, strong person, and also the least successful, least useful, failure. Imagine bringing up essentially everything that has ever deeply impacted me over a few short visits. Its like knowing your hair is already on fire, and then dumping gasoline on it. Its not fun, but I know that it has to be done. I really like the therapist I’m seeing and I feel like its a good match for where I’m at.
Every day, I’m grateful for my oil. After a dose, I can feel myself coming down from a very overwhelmed place. Sometimes my day requires more than one dose. But its vital. I am choosing this path because I don’t want to feel less. Feeling is vital, or I won’t learn to do better in the future. I’ve thought about the different medications I could be on, and both my therapist and I agree that its not a necessary step at this point.
Its been a few months since I’ve felt more “myself.” But what does that truly mean when your life has been in a whirlwind of harsh transition for the last year and a half (but really longer). In the last 9 years, I’ve moved 8 times. Not because I wanted to. Mostly because of lost jobs and selfish decisions. We had a tumultuous 6 years together, with children, adding a child, losing homes, separating, getting back together, so many lies and half truths. I learned a lot of valuable lessons, but I also learned a lot of unfortunate ones. Like who or how I can trust. That’s a lot of change, and while I thought I was figuring things out on my own, I found myself even more lost than before. It has felt like I’m being swallowed whole, into a very dark, quiet, absent space.
Finding yourself doubting every last word from people is a horrible way to live. If you tell me the sky is blue, I’m still going to look. And then I’m going to try to figure out what the underlying motive could be. This is how messed up your mind gets. You even question the people you love and trust the most, even though they aren’t the ones manipulating your mind. You can’t even trust yourself – what if you aren’t understanding what’s being said? The sickest part about it all, is that you’re really not stupid. You don’t have trouble reading people. You’ve been trained to believe you don’t understand.
I try to remind myself every day that I don’t have trust issues; I am healing my trust issues. I am speaking into existence the healing I need. Every day, I work towards getting acquainted with who I am today, not who I was, who anyone thinks I should be, but who I am now. Its a difficult road. A lot of scary grey areas that are hard to sort through, but have to be, so I can move forward. The grey areas of life are the parts that no one ever wants to handle. We spend our time avoiding it. Yet, its where life really happens. Healing comes when we sit down with our crap, shake hands with it, interview it, find out where it belongs in our life, and decide whether it deserves that place, and if not, we dismiss it from our life.
It will be a long process, but its worth it.
Love & light ~ Jess
Leave a Reply