It’s ok to not be ok, but it’s still really hard to admit it

Sad woman sitting in the corner of a room, head on the knees, face is hidden. Photo.
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We’re finally talking about mental health. Not as much as we need to be, sure, and politicians will tweet #TimeToTalk while cutting the funding to NHS mental health services, but we’re at least started the conversation. But even though now we all know that it’s #OkNotToBeOk, it’s still really fucking hard to actually admit that we’re not ok.

Content note for suicide, depression and mental illness. 

I’m not ok.

Before you read on, I want to assure you that I’m safe. I’m not ok, but I am safe. I’m not writing this blog post because I am considering ending my life: yes, I’m thinking about suicide right now, but I’m writing this so I can look back in another twelve months and know that I got through it. This is an incredibly self-indulgent post, but if you can’t be a little navel-gazing-y on your own blog, where is it acceptable?

And after all, we need to normalise people saying that they’re not ok.

I’m not ok – though honestly it would be surprising if I was. Are any of us ok at the moment? We’re mid-global pandemic and frankly just surviving is a huge achievement right now. Lockdown amplifies every one of my worst depression inclinations, because when I feel like this I want to hide from the world. It’s so much easier to do this, and fall into other self-destructive habits, when my isolation is government-mandated.

It’s not a surprise that I’m struggling, but I really am.

I’d be struggling right now even if I hadn’t hit my lowest depression point in twelve months right before social distancing started. I’d be struggling right now even if I could sit in coffee shops writing smut and use all my usual coping mechanisms of being around people while not having to talk to them beyond ordering a hot chocolate. I feel guilty to talk about that though, because so many people are dealing with so much more shit than I am right now. People are dying, and I’m complaining about the fact I feel sad.

But possibly ‘sad’ is rather too soft a synonym for ‘suicidal’.

Sometimes when I talk to my doctor or a psychiatrist, I get the impression that they’re surprised by how not-ok I really am. After all, I’ve turned up for the appointment with them, haven’t I? I’m wearing clean clothes and I’ve showered in the last two days and I’m not crying. I can talk calmly about my mental illness, my voice only shaking a little when I admit that I think about suicide every day. Every single fucking day.

Fuck fuck fuck, this isn’t normal and I’m not fucking ok.

For the level of depressed I am, I’m relatively high functioning. I can get to a psychiatrist appointment, but I can’t do anything else. It feels like the rest of my life is on pause because all my energy is just going into staying alive. It’s exhausting. I mean, it’s also exactly where that energy needs to go. If I can only do one thing, it should be not killing myself… it’s just that other people don’t see how much I’m struggling.

Partly because I hide it, because it’s hard to admit that I’m struggling.

I am not ok. That’s hard enough in itself to say. You know what’s even harder? Saying it again tomorrow and again the next day, because it doesn’t get better. Nine out of ten of my days right now are bad ones. And I’m counting a day when I consider how to kill myself a good one, which I don’t think is normal. Is it normal that I say ‘I want to kill myself’ out loud in a day more times than I say ‘I love you’ on a video call date with my enboifriend?

It’s not, and I’m not ok.

I know things will get better. Of course things will get better. But how long will I have to keep living like this, in a place where I’m so not ok that every single second is exhausting? I’m throwing all my energy into just surviving, and Sitting on the sofa, crying and pulling my hair because it’s really hard to understand why I should get through it. How long do I have to keep living through the minutes, sitting on the sofa, crying and pulling my hair because I cannot understand why I need to keep living through these awful minutes.

Four years ago I told someone for the first time that it felt like I was living life minute to minute. Second to second, sometimes. I just needed to get through the next thirty seconds and no, the pain wouldn’t get any less awful but I would be half a minute closer to being able to go to bed and let sleep numb the pain for a few hours. I started taking anti-depressants a week after that confession. Now I take anti-depressants and anti-psychotics and I’m still struggling. I’m better than I was four years ago, but I’m not better.

If there’s going to be months, years, more of being this not ok, is it worth it? I know one day I will feel better than this, but the bad days right now are so very bad. Will I ever get to a point where it’s worth having lived through all these shitty, shitty days so I can get to one which – with medication and therapy and so much work – will be slightly less shitty?

Sometimes I’m not sure it is.

Typing that is really scary; again, I want to remind you that I’m safe. I’m safe, but I’m not ok. It’s just really hard to admit that I’m not ok. So if you struggle to admit that you’re not ok, please know that you’re not alone. Vulnerability is fucking hard, y’all.

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5 Comments

  1. Sending love and support. It is so hard to admit to not being okay. I’m glad you’re safe and I hope you see things getting better soon.

  2. I’ve got a lot of friends opening up to me now I have a diploma in counselling. Sometimes you just need a good friend to vent to and someone to listen

  3. One of the worst things about trying to admit you’re not OK is how few people actually believe you.

    I went through a massive suicidal spell when I was about 16 or 17. Like you, I felt like I was living minute to minute, and there were days upon days when I would lie down in bed and hope to sleep and never wake up again.

    Of course, nobody believed me, especially at school. My classmates were all relatively dismissive of what I was going through (because they didn’t understand it), assuming that all my self-harm and crying fits were sympomatic of an attention-seeker.

    My psychologist and school counsellor were more understanding, but they couldn’t see inside my head. My dad was sympathetic but not empathetic; my mum yelled at me for hurting myself. All the time, nobody believed I was ill, or that I wasn’t OK – they all assumed that I was just sad. (The exception being my gran, who I lived with – she made me feel safe.)

    What makes it better isn’t a quick-fix, or medication, or some sort of momentous life event that makes everything turn around. It’s somebody who will not only listen, but believe you.

    I believe you, and I’m certain that there are so many other people reading this that will believe you too.

  4. Lurker who’s commenting here –

    A beautiful thing about writers who write online about sex, erotic live, and their lives as a whole (encapsulated in the pithy “sex blogger”), is that they have pulled out everything inside to give to others. The giving is staggering to me.

    Sometimes it’s just shining your light or sharing your delights, but sometimes it’s like you’re picking apart a scab that’s trying to heal to show people how you’re wounded. It’s doing a post-mortem as mortality is happening.

    As someone who’s struggled with identity, reality, and sense of self on top of every other garbage thing that life has thrown at me, thank you for blogging. I have gone days and weeks where I’m just holding on second by second and forcing myself to wait out feelings of impending doom or suicide. Questions that I thought I answered about existing coming back like ghosts on the water.

    You help me feel less alone because I see my fragility reflected on your vulnerability. You’re important. Thank you.

  5. One of the worst things about trying to admit you’re not OK is how few people actually believe you.

    I went through a massive suicidal spell when I was about 16 or 17. Like you, I felt like I was living minute to minute, and there were days upon days when I would lie down in bed and hope to sleep and never wake up again.

    Of course, nobody believed me, especially at school. My classmates were all relatively dismissive of what I was going through (because they didn’t understand it), assuming that all my self-harm and crying fits were symptomatic of an attention-seeker.

    My psychologist and school counsellor were more understanding, but they couldn’t see inside my head. My dad was sympathetic but not empathetic; my mum yelled at me for hurting myself. All the time, nobody believed I was ill, or that I wasn’t OK – they all assumed that I was just sad. (The exception being my gran, who I lived with – she made me feel safe.)

    What makes it better isn’t a quick-fix, or medication, or some sort of momentous life event that makes everything turn around. It’s somebody who will not only listen, but believe you.

    I believe you, and I’m certain that there are so many other people reading this that will believe you too.

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