Lately I feel like I’ve been
wearing a mask…I put on the happy and confident face when I’m out in public.
Sometimes I am actually happy and confident – so I fit the mask – but mostly I’m
not.
Why?
In the past few months some
events have occurred and some issues have arisen that have floored me in terms
of my self esteem and self worth. I don’t want anyone to feel sorry for me especially,
because this is just the way it is at the moment, and I will get through it,
and many people have far worse things to deal with than I do.
I am going to share what’s going
on though – because I want you to know that times like this happen to me and to
everyone, and it sucks, but it is also a part of life.
So, here’s what’s going on:
A few months ago Kirby and I had
a major falling out with one of our dearest friends. It was a complete
communication break down and it has ended up with us not knowing if the friendship
can be saved. I hope that it can be, but I’m not sure it will be. It hasn’t
only been the loss of the friend, but also of her family. She has a husband who
had also become one of our dearest friends, and she has two little girls who we
had become very close to.
It’s thrown me in a way that I
didn’t know I could be thrown. I feel lost, anxious, confused, hurt, sad, and
wondering just who the hell I am and what my worth is. My motivation has
dissipated – leaving me with little energy (mental or physical) to follow up on
the things that are important to me. Even reading has become too much. And, as
you know, writing this blog just hasn’t happened for a while.
This is not our friend’s fault –
she cannot be blamed for the way I am at all. This is just the way my mind and
body is responding at the moment.
In addition to this, my endometriosis
has come back with all the associated pain and discomfort.
And I also have fibromyalgia. My
fibro has me feeling like a complete failure. I am sore in all my joints, I can’t
sleep because of the pain, and when I do get to sleep I sleep too much (like
the other day I was up for a whole seven hours!), and the sleep is not
refreshing. Apparently people with fibro don’t get quality sleep because their
brains are wired to be on constant alert – so I can get nine hours of sleep but
it won’t be quality sleep. My brain gets all foggy and I start struggling to
finish sentences when speaking, or I mix up words, or forget a word completely –
like the other day I was talking about succulents, but I couldn’t remember the
word “succulents” – so I said “you know, those plants that take up water and
keep it in their leaves”. For someone who loves words as much as I do this is
very hard to take. My body (my legs in particular) doesn’t seem to do what I want
it to do sometimes – if I want to pick up a pencil I may have to really
concentrate on getting my fingers to move in the right way to pick it up.
I’ve tried all sorts of ways to
address the symptoms of the fibro, but unfortunately there doesn’t seem to be
any agreement on the best method or therapy among different professionals. So,
that probably means a journey of trial and error until I find something that
works, if I ever do. And to be honest, I feel too tired to bother at the
moment. After all:
- in my childhood it was trying to find a way to stop me wetting the bed
- in my teens it was trying to find a way to stop having heavy, painful periods
- in my twenties it was trying to find a way to deal with depression, anxiety, and OCD
- in my thirties it was trying to find a way to deal with epilepsy, and to overcome infertility
- and, now, in my forties it’s fibromyalgia…
Then, I can’t help thinking about
what our kids might have been like. Hayley would have been 19 this year, and
Jacob and/or Ruby 8 this month. How do I let them go? They are so real to me. How
do I get to a point where I no longer think about “what if” they had been born?
I guess I won’t…I know this in my heart, but sometimes I just wish I could have
an operation or something that would make me forget that I ever wanted
children.
I feel like a failure. I wasn’t
able to have children, I don’t feel productive due to having depression,
anxiety, and fibromyalgia, and I feel like I am letting everyone who cares
about me down. I know that the people who care about me don’t see it this way,
but I do.
My lack of self-esteem is killing
me. I’m not writing, I’m not walking – I’m putting on a good show of being
okay, but I don’t feel it.
I’m not depressed – I know that –
but the fog is heavy.
I don’t know – maybe I’m
depending too much on the fog to lift on its own, but instead I should be
walking, in any direction, to see if I can find a way out of it. Maybe it’s a
little bit of both – the fog and I both have to do something to get me out of
it.
Well – that’s where I’m at at the
moment. Hopefully next entry will be a more uplifting one.
