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I Am New Here, and This is My First Post

I Am New Here, and This is My First Post

I shared this with some friends this morning, and thought I'd post it here also. Apologies for such a negatively geared first post ...

I am generally very deliberate about what I post on Facebook. If I am upset about something, or if I am not feeling 100% for whatever reason, it generally doesn’t make its way onto Facebook. I do this on purpose. I take great pride in sharing the good stuff, the positive stuff, the stuff that makes people smile. But maybe it’s not having quite the effect I expected it to. Not on others. On me. Maybe it’s contributing to the unrealistic expectations I have of myself to be on an even keel all the time. Because when something *does* knock me for six, I have a lot of difficulty allowing myself to feel whatever emotions are appropriate. Sadness. Anger. Disappointment. I am the first to provide a shoulder for others, and to tell them “you’re only human – of *course* you’re allowed to feel like this.” But I find it incredibly difficult to follow my own advice.

Last night I made an admission to the most important person in my life: I’m not ok about not being ok. I hadn’t really realised it up to then, but that’s how it is. I am so good at beating myself up (even if it is only for a day or two), and I have some very powerful little voices that talk into my ear, making things even more challenging to cope with. They generally make me think that there are people out there that I should be trying harder to please. I find it hard enough to put myself first, let alone try and live up to other people’s perceived expectations of me (even though I know I shouldn’t have to, but that’s another story, and not one for this forum).

This is not a bid for sympathy. I am not an attention seeker. Anyone who knows me knows how hard it is for me to bare my soul – I worry so much about being a burden to other people that it’s easier to just hide it, and try and deal with it in my own head. This is more of an opportunity for me to try and resolve these unrealistic expectations that I have of myself. And to show to you that I have my moments. Quite a lot of them, in fact. I just hide them from you.

I suppose it’s also a chance to make a mention of how important kindness is. Everyone is fighting a battle you know nothing about. And you never know when just a few kind words might be enough to soothe someone’s turmoil. To help someone. Possibly more than you may ever know.

Will I be ok? Of course. But at the moment, I’m not. And I’m not ok with that. But that’s something I need to continue to work on. And admitting it here – publicly – I think is the first step.

Thank you for reading this.

5 replies

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In response to: I Am New Here, and This is My First Post

Re: I Am New Here, and This is My First Post

I can relate to your post. I never post anything negative on Facebook. Actually I try to stay positive for the most part of everyday.

Have you seen Inside Out? It's a kids movie but it puts a positive spin on feeling emotions to work through things.

Sorry I don't have much advice but just wanted to let you know you're not alone.

In response to: I Am New Here, and This is My First Post

Re: I Am New Here, and This is My First Post

Hi @evenstar

Thank you so much for putting yourself out there. I'm sure by posting this on here and on facebook you would have helped another person who has been afraid to tell anyone what they are going through.

I don't think you're attention seeker at all - I think you're brave. There's a lot of stigma out there and what you have done will help normalise and reduce stigma of mental health difficulties.

Coming onto these Forums marks a big step forward. This community is a wonderful supportive group of people - so I think you will like it here.

What's next for you? Are you reaching out for professional help aswell?

In response to: Re: I Am New Here, and This is My First Post

Re: I Am New Here, and This is My First Post

Welcome to the forum @evenstar

I think its a great first post. I struggle a bit with allowing myself to feel.. whatever and always question if its normal, ok, do i have the right to feel that?!? and never feeling like i match up... bit of a perfectionist here...

Hope to see you around the forums,

LJ

In response to: I Am New Here, and This is My First Post

Re: I Am New Here, and This is My First Post

Thank you everyone.

@LJ - yep, perfectionist here, too, as well as a high achiever. It doesn't translate to everything I do, but when it does, you can imagine how hard I am on myself.

I suppose I should extrapolate on my original post a bit.

My mother had bipolar disorder, which is what initially drew me to this forum. She was diagnosed with it when I was 13.

When my brother and I were younger, my father's main concern was my mother, and her health. As a result, we grew up with "don't do that - we don't want to upset Mum", and "we don't want Mum to get sick", and so on, and so on. So I never learned how to put myself first - to this day, I still struggle with it.

My father was also - and still is - emotionally unavailable to it. I've always gotten along with him better than with my mother, but I've never been able to talk to him about how Mum's health makes me feel - his reaction is invariably "I don't want to know about it - I've got enough to deal with".

I have never coped with Mum's illness and, to be honest, I am terrified of it. Not of mental illness in general, but of Mum's illness. Any time I become overcome with stress, like today, I get stressed about being stressed, and manage to wind up in a massive feedback loop that is exacerbated by overtones of fear.

I saw a counsellor for a while in 2013, and I still see a reflexologist. It helps, but obviously these issues are fairly deep rooted.

I am very fortunate to have a wonderful partner who understands these things, and is amazing in his support. I am learning to open up to him (after a lifetime of hiding my emotions because that was what I had trained myself to do growing), and he understands more than I give him credit for.

I am hoping that these forums will be a means of sharing my experiences with other people who understand, which in turn will hopefully bring me a measure of comfort, knowing that I am not alone.

In response to: Re: I Am New Here, and This is My First Post

Re: I Am New Here, and This is My First Post

Having a mum with serious MI is terrifying and touches us in a million secret and public places.

I dont do facebook or twitter, just starting to get into digital media and cant be bothered to try those platforms at all.

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