Reach Out.
The last few days have been punctuated with some perhaps overly-honest tweets.
Put simply, I've been having a tough time lately; really tough. And in my bleakest moments, I've needed help. This isn't a new experience - by God, I've been in this position more times than I'd like to count - but the nature of depression is that when it hits, you feel you've never felt this way before; it somehow wipes the slate clean to leave you with a new one even messier than the first.
Now, as I've intimated, I'd usually keep this to myself. But sometimes, for whatever reason, you need to reach out a bit. We are not infallible, much as we disguise our foibles, and it is probably this tendency to play down our vulnerabilities that spreads the message that to show weakness is wrong.
Put simply, that's a load of shit. There's nothing wrong with letting your guard down to be open about your mental health (says the man who, despite a lifetime of trying to gently navigate his way through long bouts of depression even doubts and plays down its existence in himself. The more we normalise these feelings, the more likely we can overcome them.
So, okay, maybe admitting how I'm feeling right now's a little risky when I'm so raw with it, but at the same time, what have I got to lose? Keeping it to myself has only made matters worse, while sharing will only increase the chances of finding like like-minded people while also normalising these struggles; I think it's fairly obvious which is the more useful option.
Put simply, I've been having a tough time lately; really tough. And in my bleakest moments, I've needed help. This isn't a new experience - by God, I've been in this position more times than I'd like to count - but the nature of depression is that when it hits, you feel you've never felt this way before; it somehow wipes the slate clean to leave you with a new one even messier than the first.
Now, as I've intimated, I'd usually keep this to myself. But sometimes, for whatever reason, you need to reach out a bit. We are not infallible, much as we disguise our foibles, and it is probably this tendency to play down our vulnerabilities that spreads the message that to show weakness is wrong.
Put simply, that's a load of shit. There's nothing wrong with letting your guard down to be open about your mental health (says the man who, despite a lifetime of trying to gently navigate his way through long bouts of depression even doubts and plays down its existence in himself. The more we normalise these feelings, the more likely we can overcome them.
So, okay, maybe admitting how I'm feeling right now's a little risky when I'm so raw with it, but at the same time, what have I got to lose? Keeping it to myself has only made matters worse, while sharing will only increase the chances of finding like like-minded people while also normalising these struggles; I think it's fairly obvious which is the more useful option.
