Understanding.

At my appointment with my therapist last week I talked about something that’s been on my mind and affecting my life for the past 2 years. She asked me to explain everything in full detail, so I did and it made me realize a lot of things. I was able to look at this problem from a different angle and see why it was a problem in the first place. I also discovered what about this is causing me pain and I’m working at getting through that.

My therapist asked me to write about my feelings about this new found discovery, more than just being hurt. So I’ve been thinking a lot about this and I know why these things hurt me and how they make me feel.

A couple of my siblings have expressed their dislike in the way that I handled my break up with my ex fiancé, and I never really understood why. Now I have my theories on why these siblings are stuck on this, after discussing things with my therapist, and I’m slowly learning why they are causing me so much pain.

When my siblings told me their feelings they compared me to my father and that really upset me. It made me feel like a piece of shit, like the lowest of the low, undeserving of life. That’s how I feel about my father and that’s how I would see anyone who was compared to be like him. To have that coming from your family is even worse. Especially my brother, he was always someone I could talk to and would give me advice when I needed it. To hear him say that really just through me off. At this point after reflecting on everything I know he is just the biggest hypocrite anyway and my life is better off without him. As for my sister, her situation is a little different. She said things along the same line as what my brother said but I can’t just cut her out of my life like I did with him. She’s a hypocrite too and I’ve been ridding my life of negative people but she holds the majority of our family get togethers. If I cut her out I won’t be seeing my family on thanksgiving and Christmas. I can’t do that.

So for now I’m just dealing with it. That’s the attitude I have towards a lot of things. I’ve been anxious about my living situation. I’m very fortunate for my living situation but I’m getting to the point in my life where I want to be out on my own with my boyfriend and my dog. We have been talking about it a lot lately and are both very eager to get this show on the road. With time that will come, so for now we have to just deal with the little things. In the long run it will all be worth it. I’m just going to deal with it when it comes to my sister. I will be civil with her. I love my niece and nephews and want to be a part of their lives. I told her to stay in touch with me about their events so I can go, but I just missed my nephews birthday. I really don’t have an excuse, I just forgot. I have been really stressed out and wasn’t thinking about anything like that this weekend. I wish my phone actually had an alert on the calendar. I always set it up but it never seems to work. I need to figure that out since anxiety likes to make my brain focus on all the things that don’t even fucking matter. I’m going to text my sister sometime this week to see if I can come visit and talk to her.

The biggest thing that happened this past week really made me feel good. That sounds crazy to say because it’s about my other brother and his fiancé ending their engagement. That doesn’t sound like a feel good thing.

This past Tuesday, the day before my appointment, my brother called me late at night. I missed his call, an an hour had passed so I just texted him asking what was up. He finally responded on Friday morning saying he would call me after he got out of work that night. I never hear from my siblings like this. It was very strange that he wanted to talk on the phone that bad.

He finally called and told me him and his (ex)fiancé broke up. He said he wanted to call me because I’ve been through this kind of thing and he wanted to just tell me that he understands now. He said he was unhappy and couldn’t see himself marrying someone unhappy. I told him I was happy he realized this before marrying her and I hope he finds the one he needs to find. He says it might be sooner than we think…! I don’t know what that means exactly but I’m happy for him.

It felt good to know one of my siblings truly understood where I was coming from. The fact that this has happened within my immediate family twice within 2 years also made me feel better that maybe my siblings might see this as something that’s not so terrible. I hope that they treat him better than they’ve treated me, and if he brings in another girl sooner rather than later, I hope they are more accepting of her than they were to Joe.

That’s one thing that bothers me the most. I have been uncomfortable bringing Joe around my family who feels this way. It’s not fair to him for them to judge our relationship based on my past. My past shouldn’t matter to them. I also learn from my mistakes so for them to think I’m going to make the same mistakes as I have in the past just goes to show their own views on themselves and their inability to learn from their mistakes.

I honestly can’t wait for my next therapy appointment. I’m hoping this ends a lot of the anxiety I’ve been having about this and I can finally move on from it completely.

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Step One…and a half

I just finished my first therapy appointment about an hour ago. I feel better now that it’s done and over with. I felt so nervous about it before going in and felt like I was going to throw up in the waiting room. I knew I was going to feel bad about it but I didn’t think it would be as bad as it was.

Once I was in the room with the therapist I felt more comfortable. I didn’t hold back, just let stuff start pouring out. She asked me a lot of questions because it was the evaluation and we ended up scheduling s second and third appointment over the next couple weeks. As difficult as it was talking, I felt like she was understand what I was saying and she seems like she is going to be able to at least get me going in the right direction.

She told me I should see my primary doctor about getting some blood work done and a general check up to make sure that it isn’t a hormone imbalance or anything like that. She also said I can talk to him about going on medication for depression and anxiety, if that is something I wanted to do. I’m going to call my doctor and schedule an appointment to get all that taken care of. In all honesty, I kind of want it to be a hormonal imbalance because medicine would fix that. I just feel like having a physical problem would be much easier to deal with than having it be a legitimate mental problem. I don’t really know how any of it works though, so I guess I should be careful what I wish for.

I feel better about the whole situation now that it’s been a little bit after the appointment and I’ve kind of settled down. I was a crying mess at the appointment and it just wasn’t fun, but I feel like it did actually already start to help.

I think it was actually easier to talk to her about what’s been going on because there isn’t going to be that biased opinion that I would get from people who know me personally. I think a huge part of not wanting to talk to people about this is because I would be receiving their opinion rather than advice or just a shoulder to cry on.

We’ll see what my next appointment brings and what some blood work uncovers.

Step One

Tomorrow is my first therapy appointment. I’m not sure what to expect, I’m not even sure what’s going to happen because it’s an evaluation. I’m a little nervous and I don’t want to do it.

I went out to my moms house for a little bit this morning. I talked to her about the appointment and she offered to go with me but I’m going to go alone. I told her I have a hard time doing this stuff with Joe, so I’m not sure how I’m going to do it with anyone else. I don’t like talking about my feelings, I never have, but maybe that’s the issue.

I’ve had a great lack of motivation over the past couple weeks and it’s starting to really get to me. I can’t figure out how to get myself out of this slump. I’m able to keep myself distracted throughout the day but as soon as I settle in with my boyfriend and the end of the day I start piling on the unnecessary thoughts of who knows what and it throws my anxiety and depression through the roof. Lately it’s been bouts of depression towards the end of the day and anxiety in the morning about the day. It’s annoying, frustrating, and honestly just really confusing.

I was able to get out of the house today though. I know the weather lately hasn’t been helping my situation at all. I know the weather has a direct affect on my mood, and I definitely have some type of seasonal depression. I can’t wait until I’m able to move to a sunnier place. I know it’s going to benefit my mental state just as much as my physical state once I’m out and about regularly. Beedle and I were able to go for a nice walk today, and it’s finally supposed to warm up next week.

Joe and I are planning a mini camping trip this weekend. I’m very excited! We are going to try to go to the Watkins Glen area, hike through there with Beedle all weekend and visit our favorite restaurant out there, Seneca Farms! They have outdoor seating areas and are officially open for the 2018 season so I’m super excited to bring Beedle. That day we will probably give him more people food than he should have and he’s definitely going to get an ice cream cone!

I’m so excited for the summer. If I’m being honest, I don’t usually look forward to it. No matter how much I love summer, I’m never satisfied with how I spend it. We only get a few months of warm weather, and I’m sick of wasting it. I think having Beedle is really going to motivate us to actually live through the summer than we want. Not only is having Beedle going to help, but having the van is going to help! We are already planning our first trip for this weekend, and it’s still winter in NY. I don’t care if it’s actually spring, there is still snow in our forecast! It’s winter! WE DON’T MAKE PLANS IN WINTER! We literally do nothing all winter long unless we plan a vacation to someplace warm, which we didn’t get to do this winter. So the fact that we have a camping trip planned out for this weekend, and it’s going to SNOW today, it’s awesome. The van is a huge motivation to get off our asses as go explore NYS.

I guess this week is my first step into actually getting better. I’ve spent the last year struggling with this openly, and the last 10 years or so before that struggling with it privately. I’m sick of it controlling my life. I don’t want to not do something because I’m depressed or anxious about it. I have missed little things here and there because of it, and I’m not trying to have it make me miss something much bigger, something more important that I’ll actually regret missing. I don’t want it getting to that point. I won’t let it get to that point.

Don’t Let Your Fears Decide Your Fate

Today I made a great effort to get an appointment with a therapist. An appointment isn’t made, but the effort was.

It’s discouraging to seek help and not get it. I called several therapist offices in my area today. One of them couldn’t get me in until June, and I don’t know if I’d make it that long. Another place had silly requirements that I had to do, which I did do, before they’ll book at appointment. I’m waiting for them to reach out to me at this point. And another place my boyfriend called for me and left a message.

That’s what happened when I tried to seek help.

A while back I had been very suicidal and decided to contact the suicide hotline. I was afraid for my life, I was scaring myself and I truly felt like I was a threat to myself. Instead of acting on my suicidal thoughts, I seeked out help and I got nothing in return. The person on the other line just repeated everything I told them back to me. That’s all they did. “I’m sad” “Oh, you’re sad?” “Yeah, this is happening in my life and causing these feelings” “Oh, so this is happening and causing these feelings?”

This is how the conversation went, and this is what I’m afraid of for therapy. I don’t know who they hire at the suicide hotline, but let me tell you, that person wasn’t helping anyone. I attempted suicide that night.

This is why I’m afraid to go to a therapist. I’m afraid I’m going to pay a ridiculous amount of money to go talk to someone who isn’t going to be able to do anything for me other than repeat back whatever it was that I just told them. I need someone who is going to listen to me, actually hear and understand what I’m saying, and offer legitimate advice, assistance, medication, refer me to a specialist, whatever it may be, but I don’t need someone to tell me what I’ve just told them.

Having responsibilities in situations like this is the absolute worst. I am in a position right now where I barely have the strength to keep going and I have all these responsibilities, like my job and my dog. I called out of work 3 times this week, which now I want to get a doctors note for but I can’t get an appointment made! Anxiety caused me to call out of work 3 times this week, which is now going to make me more anxious going back because of the consequences. I’m willing to face the consequences, but the issue is my issue isn’t resolved. I don’t want to have to call out again, I’m going to lose my job. So now I’m limited to weekends, which a lot of therapist/doctors offices aren’t even open except for emergency services.

As for my dog, I feel terrible for him. Poor thing has had the laziest last 3 days because mom is mentally ill and can’t do anything. We went on a nice trip to the park the first day, but yesterday and today have been shitty days for the weather outside and in my mind. I just can’t bring myself to leave the house. But I’m very lucky, he is the absolute best dog in the world. He has been by my side and comforting me for the last 3 days like the little therapy dog we needed.

My boyfriend actually just called me as I’m writing this and told me the psychiatrist he called doesn’t take my insurance and costs $85 a session. $85 a session and you don’t take my insurance? No thank you. I don’t need more anxiety because I can’t afford therapy!

This has been such a discouraging day. I don’t even know what to do anymore. My job has an employee assistance program which helps with mental health so I think I need to talk to my supervisor about that and see if I can take advantage of that. I know a lot of my anxiety is coming from my job too, which is also something I need to discuss with my supervisor. I’m just worried the conversation will lead me to being let go instead of leading me into a position that will keep my mind at ease. I’m a great asset to the company, I just hope that’s something they’re able to see and work with me instead of against me.

I’m very nervous for tomorrow. It’s going to be a very long, very stressful day. I can only imagine I’m going to be balling my eyes out to my supervisor. I could barely ask to make an appointment for my depression and anxiety because I would start choking on my words. I hate this so much.

Please, just end soon. Please.

That New Year New Me Bullshit

Let’s talk about it!

Honestly, I know it’s dumb. I know that I should be ready to change for the better right now instead of waiting until 2018. But New Years resolutions bring a little hope, so let people have their fun!

I guess you could say that I reached my goal. Go back and read my first blog ever. All I wanted was to be alive on 12/8/17, and clearly I was. But I’m not better, and I’m not even close to better.

Lately I’ve been feeling good, even if I haven’t been showing it. Things have been adding up and it’s been putting a lot of weight on my shoulders but I feel happier. I just need to learn to put everything that’s been going on aside and just never let it show it’s ugly head again.

I guess we should get into what’s been going on. I honestly can’t remember when the last time I wrote was, what it was about, and I didn’t go back and look before starting this. I’m pretty sure I wrote about my brother being a dick. I still want nothing to do with him, but I did see him on Christmas. It was fine but I can’t stand hypocrites. Once a year will be fine though.

My father friend requested me on Facebook. I left it alone for a couple days before declining. I just don’t know. I don’t see a benefit in having contact with him. I don’t see a benefit in him knowing what’s going on in my life. And frankly I don’t give a crap about what’s going on in his. The thing is, every time he talks to me he just wants to talk shit about what happened and about my mom. I don’t want to talk about that. I want to move past that. If you want to better your relationship with your kids, let go of the past and actually be a better father.

I’ve been avoiding the next subject for a while now. I have about 10 drafted blogs that start to talk about this but I haven’t been able to find the words to finish them. Whatever I come up with, I’m going to post.

So Joe and I got a puppy! His name is Beedle and he is about 5.5 months old. He’s a supposed golden retriever/yellow lab mix but we are confident he is something else!

I know I talked about this adoption process in an earlier blog but I can’t remember how in depth. To shorten it up, for October and November we were being lied to constantly while our puppy was being mistreated and on death row. At this point we are not sure if our original puppy is even alive.

I will eventually write up a blog about every single thing that happened, but I can’t right now.

We have our baby Beedle though. He is the smartest and sweetest pup we could’ve possibly asked for. Training him has been really easy. We are going to crack down on training and get him to where he needs to be with obedience and everything.

He has brought so much joy to my life. More than I would have ever thought possible. I am so excited to be his mommy!

This adoption brought a lot of stress to our life. We are slowly recovering, and having him in our life is helping.

We ordered a DNA test off amazon. I can’t wait to get the results! We want to take votes on breeds people think he is. It would be a fun game. We might get the result of mixed breed if he’s too much of a mutt, which he very well could be. We really have no definite on his breed!

Some ideas:

Golden Retriever

Labrador Retriever

Beagle

Bloodhound

Great Dane

Pitbull

Shepherd

Terrier

So who really knows 😂.

All I want out of 2018 is justice for this whole ordeal and I hope I get to share that some day. Hopefully some day soon.

I feel like this is keeping me in a depressive slump. I feel generally happy but can’t shake this feeling and it’s because I can’t stop thinking about this. It’s just weighing heavy on my mind. I want to tell the world everything and I can’t.

I’m enjoying my life currently. I have a good job that is looking like it’s going to go permanent for me if I keep working like I have been. I have the most amazing boyfriend and best friend I could ever ask for. He is so supportive of everything I do and I don’t know where I’d be without him. We started a family with our little buddy Beedle. He is 150% our child and I love him so much! My absolute favorite is morning snuggles on the weekends 🐶🐾 The amount of love in my heart for Joe is overwhelming. I never thought that feeling could double. My heart is just constantly flooded with love for my little family 💏🐶💚 We are doing better financially. The holidays kind of kicked our asses but I’m feeling comfortable with how things have been.

All I can hope for is that this good life transfers over into 2018. I want to continue bettering my life and enjoying it to the fullest. Happy New Year ❤️

On my mind…

There has been something weighing heavy on my mind for the past couple days. At this point I don’t really know how to feel about it, but it’s putting a dark cloud over my head. 

My boyfriend and I have been looking into adopting a dog and actually did, but more about that in another post. While going through the adoption process, the rescue we had chosen wanted 4 letters of recommendation since we didn’t have a vet to get a recommendation from them. So my boyfriend decided to ask 2 people he knew and I asked 2 people I knew. It ended up being 4 people he knew, but in all honesty, his family knows us better than my family so it was probably best that way. 

Anyway, I asked my brother if he would write a letter for us. He proceeded to accuse me of abandoning my cat, and saying I should learn to take care of my cat before trying with a dog. When I told him he should asked what’s going on in his sisters life before accusing her of abandoning her pet, and I explained that Jasper (my cat) is living at my moms house because I’m living in a house with people who are allergic to cats and my boyfriend has been looking into shots and treatments to get rid of his allergies so Jasper can move in with us when we move out. I buy my cat special expensive ass cat food because his urine crystallized and he needs to be on that diet for the rest of his life. I bought him a nice brush and brush him when I visit. I buy him and the other family cats flea treatment. I don’t understand how that is abandonment. If I could bring him into my current home, I would. But I would have to confine him to the musty moldy basement and I am NEVER doing that to any animal. 

Anyway, when I told him all of this he said it’s only a matter of time before I leave my boyfriend for the next guy. Don’t believe me?

Now I am pretty sure I openly admitted what happened between me and ex on my blog. I’m pretty sure NONE of my family ever bothered to ask. My oldest sister was there for me when I was going through it all but at that time I barely even knew what was going on. 

Not a single person in my immediate family had any concern for why I actually ended things. They just assumed what they wanted to. It took months for people to start warming up to my current boyfriend. My mom still seems very fake towards him and I actually want to talk to her about it. My younger siblings and a few older siblings are good to him and treat him like he deserves. But then this happened and it just completely through me off guard. 

Not only was that whole situation almost 2 years ago now, but I thought my family moved past this at least like 6 months ago. At least! 

If my brother gave a shit about his sister he would not have acted that way. He would not have just assumed I’m some whore who’s just dick hopping. He would’ve realized how happy my boyfriend now makes me. How much happier I’ve been since I met him is crazy. He’d realize how good my boyfriend is to me and how terrible my ex was for me. He would realize that he has probably made more mistakes this past year than I have in my lifetime, simply because I learn from my mistakes and he doesn’t. At this point in my life, I don’t have time to try to fix everyone, even if it’s my own brother.

The second I had the ability to cut ties with my father was the second my life got significantly better. I’m not afraid to cut ties with negative people in my life, not even family. Maybe he will learn from this mistake, but now it’s just too late. 

The Weight of Living

In a few short months it will have been one year since I’ve started this blog. My ultimate goal was to feel better, and I am happy to say that a few short months from my “goal” I am feeling genuinely happy. The thing is, happiness isn’t stopping certain thoughts. 

I think I have always felt emotions a little differently than the people I grew up around. My personality as a whole has been more “down” than most people’s, and its natural for me. I don’t know if anyone could ever understand what I mean by that, but as long as I know that is all that matters.

Growing up I remember very vividly moments where people have acknowledged my personality. They almost always assumed I was depressed or a bitch because I liked to keep to myself, and I still give off the same impressions today. The only difference today is, I am depressed. I might be a bitch, but I am definitely depressed.

Why? Why did I develop depression? Maybe it’s genetics. Maybe not. I don’t know, and I probably never will.

I’d like to believe that my depression and anxiety both stem from genetics, that way I have someone to blame, mom and dad! But putting the blame on someone else is never a way to solve your problems, so I won’t do that (even if it is one day proven that it is 100% genetics).

Most days I think that I am too smart for my own good. My brain knows about the bad in the world, and simply doesn’t think life is worth living in this world. Maybe I think too much about the things that might not even matter, but those things weigh heavy on my brain and my heart and give me those suicidal thoughts.

Now these things that I keep mentioning vary. I know that some of them are actual real life issues that are affecting the human race and this planet as a whole, and others are as simple as people not following the rules of the road when I’m driving home from work. Whether its big or small doesn’t matter, they all weigh the same on me. Heavy. As. Fuck.

So just imagine EVERY SINGLE ISSUE in the world, big and small. That is the weight on my shoulders. That is the weight I just can’t shake, no matter what I do. It holds me back in my day-to-day life and it is holding me back from a good future. I can’t stop thinking about these issues, about the actions of others, about the straight stupidity of others that is destroying this world. It pisses me off to no end. I wish I could vent about these things to someone, I wish I could vent about these things to the people who are doing them. I wish I could educate every single person on this planet who is doing something that is causing more harm than good, or is GOING to cause more harm than good. I wish I could say all of these things, but without sounding like I’m full of myself, or a know-it-all. I wish I could say these things without making people feel stupid, without sounding conceded or like I think I’m better than anyone else. Because I really don’t feel that way, I understand that I make mistakes all the time. I do bad things, I will own up to anything that I do. I just see people going about their daily lives in a fashion that I just see as so wrong, and I know that I can’t change people like that, but it would be so nice if I could. At least on the things that put my life and other’s at risk.

Maybe I will start a new blog strictly venting about these things that I think about. Maybe that will help me.

Anyway, I feel like I went off about the weight on my shoulders. Back to the rest of this blog…

When I was growing up people would assume I was depressed. My brother’s (now ex) girlfriend even asked my other siblings if I was depressed. All because I liked to keep to myself. So, I guess what I’m getting at is that depression doesn’t give a fuck what your personality is like. I don’t think that if I was a more “bubbly” person that I wouldn’t be depressed. I don’t think people should assume that a smile on the outside means a smile on the inside, because it really doesn’t. People may be able to “see” my depression (or so they think, because back then I actually wasn’t depressed), but they can’t see it all. I know tons of people who are the happiest people you’ll ever meet, and they suffer every day with this. Even when I feel happy, it’s still there. In the back of my head, I’m still thinking that I’d rather be dead.

So, I’d rather be dead. Let’s talk about that.

It’s never like a “I’m going to kill myself right now” type of deal. It is just a thought that stays on my mind until I start thinking of ways to actually do it. Luckily, depression hasn’t completely taken over, and I can usually get those feelings to subside for a little bit. But I think about it a lot, almost every day of my life. Yeah, almost every day of my life I think to myself that I’d rather be dead.

I could be at work. Rather be dead.

Visiting my mom. Rather be dead.

Playing with my nieces and nephews. Rather be dead.

Loving my boyfriend. Rather be dead.

Snuggling my cat. Rather be dead.

Playing video games. Rather be dead.

Stargazing. Rather be dead.

I truly would rather be dead. I have never just completely come to terms with that until now. Until writing this particular blog and actually typing that out over and over again, it put me in a position just now where I am okay with having those thoughts. I don’t know if they will ever go away, but for now they’re there. 

I am and will continue to do everything in my power to never act on this feeling. But it’s definitely there, and I don’t want to pretend like it isn’t.