I’ve had a nice weekend off, seeing a few friends and chairing the meeting for a new medical school mentoring scheme I’m heading up. I rounded things off with an evening service at church, but found myself not quite at ease as I listened and sang.
I’m back in counselling tomorrow afternoon and it’s been quite tricky sorting my timetable at the GP’s to get the time off – and after spending a few days with them, am not really that keen on being completely honest about why I need it. I’m also just getting completely fed up of having to always, always be thinking about how to get the afternoons off I need, where my next attachment will be (and whether I can get back from it for counselling), of knowing that on Monday evenings, I may well be capable of no more than collapsing in a heap and crying. I’m fed up of having to keep marching to this constant drum. I’m fed up of being constrained, first by depression and now by recovery.
I was sitting in front of a girl in my medical year tonight, and sometimes, I just feel so jealous – jealous that other people haven’t had to deal with juggling depression and medical school, recovery and medical school, counselling and medical school. I get envious about the things I miss out on, as for example, I can’t go to a lot of the teaching hospitals at the moment as I would’t be able to get back in time on Mondays, so am stuck in the city. Recovery, as so many of you will know, takes so much time and so much effort. Sometimes, I really do just get a fit of the ‘poor-little-me’s’ and want to say, why, why is is me that was brought down in this way, why was it my life that had a year, if not more, completely wiped out of it, why is my grades that, after four years of working so hard to stay in the top end of the year, have now slipped, thanks to last year? Why is it my life that was turned upside down, my mind and reason that went AWOL, my body, that didn’t take well to medication? The list goes on.
I know, so well, that it’s pointless looking and envying people. A lot of people, if not all, have significant struggles to work against. A lot of students take a hit from illness of one sort or another. A lot of people go off to counselling and survive to tell the tale. I’m not usually one prone to self-obsession (that would be my older sister). And yet, sometimes, I just feel so frustrated I want to cry. I feel so tired of this ‘journey’ that I want to sit at the side of the road, and not move another inch. I want to hang up my hat, turn in my chips, leave it, leave it all behind. I don’t care, for the reasoning that for all I know, this girl, or anyone in my year, probably has a shedload of stuff going on, behind closed doors. I don’t care, for the reasoning that no one had a clue that I was falling apart last year, so how can I assume things about anyone else? I don’t care, that it’s unfair, unjust, unreasonable to crack out the envy and let it seethe. I don’t care, that having the odd hissy fit at God, won’t get me anywhere. Sometimes, I just have to hiss. I just have to stamp my feet and let it out.
I think part of it is that at the moment, I’m feeling quite alone in all this. Sometimes I wish that I had a family who rallied round and helped me through things, rather than the dysfunctional, corrosive one I have. I get fed up sometimes, of managing on my own. Sometimes, like at the moment, when I’m having a few days of feeling oh-so-vulnerable, oh-so-easily wounded, all I want is someone to take it all away and help me know what to do. Last year proved that I’m not always good at making my own decisions, and as a result, I don’t feel quite as capable or invincible as I did before. Walking wounded. After the whole run in with the substance-misuse doctor the other week, it’s as though all my armour has been stripped away and suddenly, it’s only to obvious to the world that I am defenceless, fragile and not quite as bullet-proof as I’d have it believe. I’m back to square one again. I hate square one. Sometimes, depression feels like a game of snakes and ladders, but with no ladders and extra snakes. It’s hard enough to stay in one place, let alone move forward.
God – please help me stop being so grumpy and ill-thinking. Please help me see the way through this. Please help me keep my eyes fixed on you, and not on things I can’t change. And please don’t let counselling finish me off. Love, Char48.
So – let’s hope that this week isn’t quite as grumpy as the last.
Hi Char48. Been reading your blog since you left the comment on mine. I just wanted to say you’re not alone. I struggled with depression (relating to having post-viral/chronic fatigue syndrome amongst a host of other things) and several of my friends (all medical students like you are) did too.
From what you’ve said here, it sounds like you aren’t at square one, because you are recognising what is challenging you, and you are finding ways to work through it – whether it be counselling, or organising your schedule because you know what is going to drain you and make your day tougher.
Keep taking it to God like you have just done, and know that you’ve got another person praying you’ll keep walking that path of recovery.
This is the song that kept me going through the days where I could nothing but lie in my bed and pray during that period: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fQuUWJ-Ch4Q – I hope it might also give you encouragement too.
Much love – BrunetteKoala x
thanks BK, and for the link – not one I’ve heard before! It’s frustrating sometimes, but an awful lot better than is used to be! Hope you’re having a lovely week, xxchar48
Hey hon,
An idea that I find really helpful is that recovery is not like climbing a flight of steps or walking in a straight line. It’s more like a spiral staircase, so you do go over the same ground again and again and find yourself seemingly back in that same place, but you learn more and more every time and you are still moving upwards even though it doesn’t feel like it. I’ve found that to be true in my own battle with depression, that even when I feel I’m back at square one, I learn something new (and helpful) from the experience or it doesn’t take me as long to get out of that place as it would have before. I hope that’s some help!
Moon Tree x
thanks MT, that’s a good way to think about it! Hope you and S have had a more restful few days.