Too many people I care about are dealing with varying degrees

of depression. Too many people I know are having such a hard time right now, they don’t know which way is up. They suffer, often silently, as they try to cope with daily life. They’re trapped in their own heads with horrible thoughts echoing around them. I’ve been there, it’s not the most fun place to be. So, if you need a positive message, I have one for you.

I see you.

I get it. It’s tough to be a human in this day and age sometimes. We get overlooked unless and until we do something big and loud, and are informed of our own failures and uselessness otherwise. Doing things big and loud is just unexpected enough that it garners attention, appreciation. But big and loud is easy, or at least it’s easy to acknowledge when it does happen. The smaller things, the stuff that gets taken for granted because almost everyone does it almost every day, that shit is hard. And we tend to get down on people for having a hard time doing the everyday stuff, so much that we can forget just how hard it can for some of us.

From the beginning, waking up is hard. Getting out of bed can seem like an impossible feat, and yet it’s expected of us every day whether we are capable and healthy or not. We defy our preference for rest and leave the controlled and safe environment at home (for those of us who have a safe and controllable environment) to deal with people who, for the most part, are unpredictable. If we’re lucky enough to have a job, we are likely not to be doing something we particularly love or are making a ton of money at it. Kudos to you if you’re doing both. Since life isn’t getting any cheaper, we worker ourselves longer hours, sometimes with multiple jobs to keep up. We pour more and more of ourselves into organizations that don’t necessarily have our best individual interests at heart so we can afford the ever-increasing cost of living. And if you have kids, forget it. You grind yourself to dust to make sure this mostly helpless person that you love unconditionally can survive and thrive—and if you’re really lucky, they’ll be blissfully unaware of how hard you work to make it happen. On top of that, we have to maintain relationships with unpredictable people—co-workers, friends, family, spouses—to make surviving the day-to-day tolerable. And all the while, we do most of this in relative obscurity. The numerous little things we do to keep life and society chugging along go largely unrecognized. Sometimes, somewhere in all this, we let ourselves fall through the cracks. For some, that descent is longer, and all your mind can do along the way is scream.

The daily grind can be unkind and thankless, and sometimes, all you might want is for someone to see how hard all this is. All we might need is some acknowledgment for the sacrifices—big and small—that we make.

I see you.

So, to all the parents and teachers trying to guide a young mind, and keep them healthy and alive…

To all the shift workers and day laborers, the tradesmen and truckers, that keep our world moving…

To those hustling through a day job so they can go back to school or pursue a dream…

To the people who stare at their alarm, trying not to hit snooze for the tenth time…

To the friends and strangers alike who are having a rough go and just need someone to know that it’s happening…

I see you.

I am you.

And I appreciate you.

#2019 #depression #mentalhealth #alone