On a day that is both really good and really bad

Lately, I’ve been thinking a lot of how my depression, anxiety and anger issues affect me. While I feel like other people could just get treated for their depression, anxiety, etc., my issues are a large part of what make me, me. My mental illnesses have held me back from so many things.  My anxiety causes me to overanalyze, overthink and basically fear everything. Additionally, I have really bad social anxiety so I have a really hard time connecting, interacting and maintaining relationships with people thus I often come off as aloof or standoffish. I actually really like social interaction; it’s just really hard for me.  Depression is also terrible and debilitating and makes it hard for me to actually be interested in anything and as a result, I’m angry, lonely and broken.

My friend recently got diagnosed with depression. I’m happy for her so now she can work on getting better. I see her as so much more than that. She is an amazing friend; she is smart, resourceful, friendly and a talented videographer and photographer.  But I don’t feel like I am more than my problems; I feel like I am my problems. When I tried for months to get help through therapy and medication, it didn’t work at all and in fact made things worse. It’s been so many years. I’ve put in so much effort and a big part of me feels like I’m always going to be walking around in a terrible haze and it’s absolutely horrible to think about.

I guess from the outside, mental illness is not that noticeable but from the inside it literally affects everything I do from my thinking process, to my actions, to how I present myself as a person.  Whenever someone kills themselves, people always talk about how amazing and nice and how well liked they were, but the whole time, from the inside, they feel like they’re dying. And I definitely understand that.

I haven’t had a good day in a long time but today, I had one. I hung out with friends but more importantly I didn’t overthink and I did have to fake emotions like I almost always do. I felt good. I felt clear. I wanted to interact with strangers. I was talkative and excited. I didn’t have anxiety when talked to someone I have been meaning to know better for a while. We actually had a good conversation instead of my brain freaking out and analyzing every little thing. I actually felt like a functioning human being today. I felt so much more than all of these problems.

I want it to be a good day every day. I’m sick of being unable to untangle myself from the problems that define me.

Unfortunately, my brain is cooperative and I don’t trust it. I don’t trust myself.  The good days are few and far between and there is nothing I can do to make the bad ones go away. I would be fine with a normal amount of bad days but all these bad days are too much and I can’t take it. 

I feel like other people are on the road of epic adventures and I’m just held down by my problems.

I don’t have an answer to fix this and I hate it.

Ridiculous Expectations

As a student who has just started my senior year of high school, I have definitely been bombarded with meeting and lectures about the upcoming school year. Expectations, expectations, each one of these lectures echo.  My pretentious college prep school just got a new principal, so obviously she had to give a speech to not only the whole school, but a specific one for the senior class. In a weird, ramble-y lecture, she cites random personal experiences as why she expects us to get a lot of sleep, function perfectly, and basically make her job super easy. Even though I know she is trying to be optimistic, she utilizes cheesy cliches to guilt trip students into staying at a school that could be a very detrimental and harmful environment for them. It’s frustrating because just by saying “I expect you to…” she can trash all of her responsibility as a principal. In the following lecture, the school did the same thing. The next someone needs help or fails, they could simply just place all the blame on the student. These people are being paid to run a school, but they aren’t invested in actually helping the students of the school. The only reason any of them have jobs is because of the students are willing to attend this school. It’s additionally even more frustrating that the administration expects so much of students, but doesn’t hold itself to the same regard, constantly letting down the students by cutting courses, teachers and funding, and refusing to help students deal with health problems, instead choosing to kick out the students.  I don’t really know how to fully express my frustrations, but it’s just very infuriating when a school promises things and constantly lets you down, but fully expects you to be accepting of their failures and still continue meeting their ridiculously high expectations.