Today is not going to be a good day.
It’s not even nine o’clock in the morning yet, but I already know this for a fact.
There are some people that will insist it is too soon to know anything for sure, that I should pick myself up, brush myself off and face the day with a positive attitude and a brave face. There are others who will insist it is all in my head, telling me that I will be fine once I get up, get out there and start moving.
There are some who will insist I am being melodramatic, making mountains out of mole hills. If you have never experienced these storms firsthand, never fought to survive them, you have no idea how bad they can get.
But I know these days all too well.
I’ve struggled with depression my entire life.
I’ve wrestled with this beast many times over, fought this monster again and again.
And I know today will be yet another epic battle.
Today, I will be lucky if I can even pull myself out of bed. The world feels completely overwhelming, my life utterly overbearing. Everything seems hopeless and futile. I feel like I am suffocating under the weight of all the problems and issues I have been attempting to juggle and resolve. I am mentally and emotionally exhausted beyond words. The lies depression tells have already begun gusting and blowing around me, their sheer force threatening to knock me down.
I am wrapped in a blanket. I will be lucky if I can pull myself up at all today.
I am caught in a rising tide of emotions, being pulled back and forth between feeling way too much and being completely numb to it all. The tears come in waves, the struggles crashing into me, threatening to knock me overboard.
As each wave recedes, I sit here catatonic, drenched in my own tears, unable to even fully process everything I am feeling anymore.
The pain and the numbness each wash over me in turns. Every time I think I could not possibly feel anything more, I am flooded with more anguish and strife. Each time I think the agony will never end, I find myself trapped in that moment of stillness again, that nothingness, staring into that void, feeling empty and numb.
I rock back and forth, thrown around in that sea of depression, each crashing wave threatening to pull me down into its depths.
I am trapped in that storm front, between the hot and the cold, feeling too much and feeling nothing at all.
You cannot stop those storms when they hit, but you can feel them in the air when they’re about to arrive. You know they are coming so the best you can do is prepare.
I cancelled my afternoon appointment. Otherwise, I know I would spend the morning fighting with myself to get up, get moving, and ultimately tearing myself apart for being unable to do so. When I dragged myself to the bathroom, I brought back granola bars and my water bottle on the way back through. I grabbed an extra blanket, extra tissues and the television remote. There is little time to prepare but I do my best.
I have curled up on the couch, wrapped up tightly, nourishment on hand, ready to ride out this storm.
There’s an old saying that “into every life a little rain must fall” but this isn’t just a little rain. It is a hurricane. A tsunami. A nor’easter.
I would evacuate if I could but there is really nowhere to go. Like Eeyore, these storm clouds follow me everywhere. The storm will come.
There will be flooding.
But I won’t let myself drown.
I’ve learned long ago not to push myself during these storms, not to foolishly attempt to wander out when they get bad. I don’t beat myself up for what I cannot do or where I am incapable of going. I cannot control the storms raging inside me any more than I can mother nature outside. They come from time to time because they are part of my depression.
It is always harder to go out in the storm so I try to avoid it whenever I can.
I have learned to batten down the hatches, board up the windows and take care of myself the best that I can. I have learned to take care of myself to the best of my ability, making sure I have what I need on hand. I have learned, as well, to not beat myself up for not feeling capable of navigating through these storms. It is better that I stay home, stay safe and warm, then to attempt to venture out and drown in the sea of my own depression. Especially when the skies appear clear to everyone else so nobody else even realizes I’m drowning.
No storm lasts forever.
I will ride this one out and I will be okay.
Because I am a survivor.
I have survived other storms and I will survive this one, as well.
I refuse to drown in my own depression. I will do whatever I must to stay afloat.
Unlovable 