For this edition of Patients For A Moment, I asked the following question:
What gets you down, and what do you do to pick yourself back up?
I sincerely appreciate the honest and open responses that the participants in this edition provided:
Brittney, from The Road I’m On, talks about a variety of issues in her life that have contributed to depression, seeking out therapists, and trying to find other means of dealing with hard times, in the post, “Is That A Dark Hole I See?”. She suggests that writing is one of the most therapeutic activities for her, and I couldn’t agree more.
In the post, ‘don’t let it bring you down’“: PFAM blog carnival”, Phylor of Phylor’s Blog explores some of the adventures of her “past life”. She calls chronic pain and depression “evil twins”, and she tries to send them on their way with thoughts of butterflies and sunshine.
Kitty from My CFS writes about being fed up with making changes that don’t seem to work, only to go in the other direction when she eats the things she’s not supposed to. She calls herself “bad kitty!”, but I think she’s being too hard on herself. Sometimes it feels too bad to be good.
In the post “On moping”, Helen of Pens and Needles Pens and Needles talks about coming to terms with not being able to do things because of illness, but that’s not really what gets her down. What gets her down is being in pain from doing nothing at all.
In my post “The Dark Side Of The Moon, The Underbelly Of My Soul”, I (Leslie from Getting Closer to Myself) talk about hitting a rough patch recently, and feeling pretty down about things.
No one, including myself, was really able to answer the second part of my question. I really put it in there because I felt like I’d get people down if I didn’t, but I guess sometimes just making it through is the best we can hope for. Sometimes all we can do is hope that things will get better.
And sometimes when you are down, all you can really do is give the world a big f*** you, Cee Lo Green style…
The next edition of PFAM will be hosted by Una Vita Bella and will go live June 22nd.
Leslie,
ReplyDeleteI am struggling to write a post about this very subject. It started out as a list of what I do to help with depression and then a list of what I do when I'm manic to bring me back to reality. It turned into a list of things that make me sad. Clearly, I couldn't put that up, so I ended up saying nothing at all yesterday!
I think this is the hardest thing for chronic pain patients with depression. Sometimes it really is all we can do to get through the day and just take each and every breath.
One really positive thing I have found is Toni Bernhard's How to be Sick, written by a former law professor with chronic fatigue syndrome. She has many great pointers for how to live with chronic illness.
Chelle
Great edition Leslie! x
ReplyDeleteHow is today Leslie?
ReplyDeleteEngulfed or riding the wave?
What gets me down is the amorphous fear of a small problem today becoming engorged in the future... and I have to remind myself to deal with the difficulty of today so that I am not overwhelmed. Mindfulness helps - being grateful for the beauty around the suffering.
What do I do to pick me up? Lots!! Umm... movies, a splash of perfume, painting my toenails, being re-inspired by favourite writers/ activists... letting someone I love know how ghastly the day is and seeing the anxiety reflected in their eyes snaps me right of it! Mooching about with the plants helps too.. oh and a cuppa tea with cake.