By the yard it's hard, by the inch, what a cinch

When I was a child, I was in Patch the Pirate Club, as well as had a couple Patch the Pirate cassettes. Simply put, Patch the Pirate is a MAJOR NAME in Children's Christian Music, especially in the fundamentalist Christian sect. Patch aims to teach values, not only of faith, but also of morals and character. I actually know songs about loving broccoli and cleaning my plate, about not being a wiggle worm, and many other things that really call for another blog entry. But there are a few songs that have stuck out with me, so here is the first I'm going to write about. I may write others, I may not.




"When mountains tower ragged and high,
rise to the challenge, look to the sky
Trust in the Lord, and start to climb,
Reach for the goal one step at a time

Little by little, inch by inch
By the yard it's hard, by the inch what a cinch
Never stare up the stairs but step up the steps
Little by little, inch by inch."

I think this is a powerful message and absolutely profound in a simple children's song. When I think of mental illness recovery, be it from depression, an eating disorder, bipolar, borderline personality disorder, self injury... when I think of recovery, so often it IS a mountain towering, ragged and high. It's overwhelming when we first look at it. But when we step back and take it little by little, inch by inch, it's so much easier. Recovery doesn't happen overnight. I don't know how much longer I'll be in treatment. Months? Years? It's unknown at this point in recovery. But I do know I take it little by little.

If it means when my eating disorder is in full force, and all I eat for the day is a sandwich and drink some tea, that's little by little. Each day, I can add a bit more food, be it a side, be it another sandwich if sandwiches are my current "safe" food, etc. If my depression is in full force and I don't want to leave the apartment, much less my bed, I can take it little by little. Be it just getting up, taking a shower, and getting dressed. I don't necessarily have to go DO anything, but taking the step to get up is a progress. And that's the thing - progress is a process. It's something we do little by little, inch by inch.

I think that it's important to know that recovery happens. It's possible. But sometimes, it's overwhelming. Sometimes I feel like finding the right medication combination is never going to happen. Sometimes I feel like therapy is going nowhere, sometimes I feel like progress is being made, sometimes I feel like I'm backsliding and for each step I've taken, I've gone back twelve.

But that's not the point. The point is I'm trying. The point is I'm living. The point is that every time I make a good life choice, however small, however insignificant it seems at the time, it's a step toward recovery, even if it's just an inch, even if it's not even quite an inch yet.

The point is I'm moving. The point is I'm getting there. The point is, little by little, I'm working my way towards there. I'm "reaching for the goal, one step at a time." And by taking lots of little steps, maybe one day, I'll overcome. And yes, I'll reach that goal one step at a time.

These secrets are walls that keep us alone

Sometimes I wish I were someone other than me
Fighting to make the mirror happy - Bethany Dillon

I hate it. I hate how every day is a battle. I hate how  every frick-fracking meal is a battle. Even one BITE is a battle. It's a fight. It's a war. It's an all out battlezone against myself. I didn't chose this, though some days I wish I had because then I could just chose for it all to be over. Some days I wish it was more of a choice, because then I could just chose not to be this way. Chose not to live in this hellhole. Chose not to live in this torment inside my head for every meal, every bite, every time.

And soon, obsessing over food and meals and bites becomes not enough. Certain foods can't touch each other. Certain foods can. Certain foods are okay to eat. Others aren't (gluten allergy not withstanding). And the obsession and control spreads out. Certain numbers are okay. Others aren't. And everything becomes a downward spiral of control and spins wildly out of control. And I can't just snap out of it. I can't just stop being anal. I can't just cowboy up.

How I wish I could! How I wish I could just get over it. How I wish I could just start eating again. How I wish it was just that simple! I want it to be like that. I want it to be like that. I wish I could eat without my head tormenting me. I wish I could eat without such torment, such inner anguish. I hate it, I hate every bit of it.

I don't want to be like this. At times, I find myself thinking that I wish I hadn't chosen to have an eating disorder then I want to whack myself upside the head because who the hell does? No one chooses to have an eating disorder. It's a psychological illness, just like depression or anxiety or a post traumatic stress disorder. And it's not my fault. I can chose to get help and chose to overcome it, but it doesn't change the fact it makes every day a struggle, every minute a fight.

And I hate myself for it. I hate myself for the fact that I was dealt this deck, on top of my medical problems, on top of my trauma past, on top of everything else. I hate myself for who I am today, even though none of it is my fault and it isn't rational, I still hate so deeply although I know it isn't right. Kinda screwed up but I guess it's part of the cycle, part of how it goes.

I hate who I am. I hate who I've become. I hate what these thoughts have done to me.

i need some distraction, oh beautiful release

i hate how i'm feeling lately.
i don't know that it's depression. i'm not sad. i'm not sad, no, not really. sadness isn't the quite the right word.  i mean yeah, i feel overwhelming sadness some days but it's not the overarching feeling. it's not the primary feeling. it's not the main thing i feel.
apathy? sure, i've given up caring about cleaning (really need to do that, my area of the apartment is godawful) and i've given up caring about life, the future, what happens to me. i have hopes and dreams but who am i fooling? they'll never happen. my health will never improve to the point where i'm able to hold down a job. i can barely handle school, what kind of idiot am i to think that i'll be able to have a future?
then, what? hopeless? i guess you could say that, but i don't even know if it's the right word. sad? depressed? none of these words seem quite right. lonely? scared? overwhelmed? i don't even know what words describe me anymore. if there are words. if there are any words.
i'm scared to see a doctor, scared to be honest. scared to let people see how things really are. what if they judge me? what if they don't like me? what if they can't help me? so instead, i let myself spiral.
i let the anxiety take over. i let the fear take over. i let the what-ifs take over.  when talking, face-to-face talking, i either lock down or i've been dealing with this stuff for so long that i've learned how to mask it, learned how to downplay it, so things aren't really as bad as i realize. i tend to downplay things and let them go into they are super sonic bad... case in point, recent ear infection.
i feel scared and helpless and alone and like a failure.
and this emptiness. and despair. and the feeling that i will never pull myself out.
i know i'm not fooling everyone, that would be naive. but why do i try? why don't i give people a chance? it's like i've been hurt and hurt and hurt so i'm scared to show the truth.
will they love me less? doubtful. so why do i let myself believe such things? why don't i just trust? why am i so scared?
why do i feel like falling into self injury? and i'm not suicidal, but i'll be damned if i don't think about death. if i don't think about a break from the mental and physical pain. i know it's not an option, but damn if it doesn't come to mind.
i hate feeling like this. i hate feeling that things will never get better. because... what if that feeling is right?

But people have problems that are worse than mine, I don't want you to think I'm complaining all the time

I feel I'm on the verge of another depressive spell, and it sucks. Likely triggered by all the back to school posts. No back to school for me. Nope. No job, one class, just stuck in the same monotony. I'm entering physical therapy, trying to get a grasp on my physical pain, and my mental health? THAT'S a frick-fracking joke and a half.

I have a script for Effexor across the room, from a useless appointment with a psychiatrist. From one who pushed me for details about my PTSD, why I haven't had sexual relations, wouldn't listen to my past medical history (she tried to put me on Prozac when I told her no less than five minutes previously that Prozac had made me worse), etc. For this week at least, I've made the choice to stay  off antidepressants, though it doesn't mean it's set it stone and I won't at some point hunt for a new psychiatrist. But there's a part of me, this twisted, demented part of me, that's tempted to fill the Effexor script and take it in an act of self-sabotage. Even though I know that since it's in the class as Cymbalta it's a really stupid idea, and even though I know it'll jack with my heart rate, it's the irrational, self-injuring part of my brain. Even though I know I'll likely have side effects from it, even though I know things will spiral further out of control, it's so tempting just to completely throw the towel in and screw things up. I hate how twisted my brain is at times.

My eating has gone to crap. Most days? I'm lucky to get one meal in and enough fluids. Some days? No eating happens. My weight is dropping again and I'm finding it hard to care. I'm coming close to cutting again and this is preventing me from it. I don't want to cut and I don't want to not eat, but right now I just need some way to hurt myself to control my depression. I am in such a bad state, aren't I? I'm not suicidal. That's not a problem at all. But if hurting myself keeps me alive for now... I just don't even know at the moment.

I feel like I'm crumbling. I feel like I'm tumbling. I feel like I am falling to shreds. I hate who I am. I hate who I am becoming. I hate how I feel. And I am so helpless. I feel beyond hopeless. I'm at the point where I don't know if things will ever get better. How can they? So many antidepressants have failed. Maybe I'm destined to be a failure. Maybe things will never get better. Maybe I'll just fall to pieces and there won't be a way to duck tape me back together.

I hate how I let myself fall this low. I hate how I feel like I'm crumbling to pieces. I need a break. I need a vacation. I need out for awhile. I need to go somewhere that's not here. Somewhere away. If I don't fall apart before then. If I don't fall to pieces. I hate how depression is. I hate how my depression makes me irrational and want to make irrational decisions. I hate how it makes my brain all foggy, like I'm seeing through mashed potato covered lenses instead of clear ones. I hate how it makes me feel.

I don't like what I'm becoming. I don't like who I am. I hate how when I talk to therapists and doctors that I just lock down. I retreat within myself. It's safe in there. It's scary and dark, but it's comfortable and familiar, even though it's a terrifying place. Because even though it's dark and scary - it is what I know and so there I stay. I don't lock down on purpose, and then the doctor gets pissed off that I don't talk to them when it isn't that I don't want to, it's that I can't. The words and feelings are completely locked and trapped inside me and I can't pull them out. I want to talk, but it's so hard. It isn't easy. And I feel so trapped. I feel so trapped within myself.

I don't know what to do. I don't know what I'm becoming. All I know is I'm falling... falling... falling...

Let the weak be strong, let the right be wrong. Throw the stone away, let the guilty pay, it's independence day

The teacher wonders, but she does not ask
It's hard to see the pain behind the mask
Bearing the burden of a secret storm,
Sometimes she wishes she was never born

I suppose two things come to mind on October 31st for the average person. The first is, obviously, Halloween.

The second, primary in Christian especially Lutheran, circles, is Reformation Day.

Before Halloween candy, before Martin Luther being all "TAKE THAT CATHOLICISM!", another day comes to mind. Independence Day. Now, before you think I've lost my marbles, I know it's not 4 July yet. There won't be any fireworks tonight, although there will be in my heart. And there won't be cookouts and baseball, because I really don't care much for either.

Seven years. I moved out seven years ago. And while it was undeniably the best decision I ever met, it was undoubtedly the most painful. No 18 year old should have to make the decisions I made that day, and no 18 year old should have to live through that.

I was, after all, only 18 years old. And I turned my father into the police. I had people I thought I trusted turn against me. It's so hard to believe it's been seven years since all that happened. But there are still nights I miss my Daddy.

Yes, he's a colossal class A asshat. But we'd watch movies together, or sometimes I could convince him to hook up the SNES or my Genesis and we'd play video games. We'd play "Name That Tune" to the Oldies Radio Station, and I'd kick his ass in Bible Trivia. He'd take me to see the movies. I can't really name that many good qualities about him and he is, at his core, a drunken pedophile, but dammit, he's my father. I miss him. I miss what I lost, I miss what I never had, I miss what I never will have. I guess that's normal and I guess it's the way it should be. But at the same time... I still deeply grieve.

But I've changed so many in seven years, and I will change in so many more. Next Halloween, I'll be wearing a costume for the first time (and it'll be awesome). The next year, I'll continue to heal and grow and change. And who knows? Maybe one October, it'll just pass as fleeting memories.
Like my father's come to pass, seven years has gone so fast.

Me at eighteen. Yup. Really, not much has changed.

And with a broken wing, she still sings
She keeps an eye on the skies
With a broken wing, she carries her dreams
Man, you ought to see her fly

Through despair and hope, through faith and love

Seven years ago, everything was changing. Little did I know that just over a month later, everything would further spiral out of control. Me, the control freak that I am, would be left utterly helpless and shattered. How was I to know that age 18, soon everything I knew would change? How was I to know at 18, everything was going to be different soon? How was I to know that I would soon sink into utter despair, and not know when I would find hope again?

September 28, 2005 was the day I totally melted down from stress in the middle of my College Prep World History class. I remember just bursting into tears during a study period, and my teacher trying to console me. But me, being the stubborn person I am, threw up my walls and refused to let him in. Idiotic move there, Ang. Soon things would change so much. But I wonder how different it would have been had I opened up to the teacher then. But I was scared to death. I was only 18 and while legally an adult, if I told the other people at school what was going on, legal systems would be involved. Kind of funny how just over a month later, my faith in the legal system was shattered as well. Kind of funny how my faith in the church and the legal system both took a suckerpunch, and I still haven't regained faith in the legal system.

I guess it's kind of funny now that I'm going into the ministry. It's kind of my ultimate "screw you, bitches!" to the people who hurt me in the church. It's the proverbial middle finger to those who told me I'd never amount to anything, I'd never graduate college. Because you know what? I'm going to make a difference. My story of despair was not for naught, and I can turn it into hope. If I can make a difference in just one life, I will have had an effective ministry. If I can help just one teenager, just one child, if I can protect the child that others failed to protect, my work is complete.

I want to help the ones who slip through the cracks. The ones who fall to the wayside. It doesn't matter if no one else loves them, I want to love them. To turn despair into hope, and to administer faith and love. To be someone they can trust, and not someone who will shatter everything when one of the darkest secrets come to life.

And that is my dream. One of them. The other is to work in a summer camp for disabled children, but that's another post. Another day. Another night.

It's bedtime. Alarm goes off too early, but it's another little sleep night. Been too many of those lately, but not much I can do about it at the moment.

As my memories rests, but never forgets what I lost

Like my father's come to pass, seven years has gone so fast
Wake me up when September ends
Here comes the rain again, falling from the stars
Drenched in my pain again, becoming who we all

September marks seven years since everything flipped upside down, since everything turned topsy-turvy, since my life went totally off-kilter. It's kind of funny because even though my father isn't actually dead as in he kicked the bucket, emotionally he's dead to me as I don't speak to him, haven't seen him in seven years.

Funnily enough, this time seven years ago this song was all over the radio. I heard it on the bus going to school every single morning (along with the DHT cover of "Listen To Your Heart"). Kind of funny that seven years later, it sums up my feelings about the month of September.

September isn't as loaded as October 31st is for me, but September is still a month of loss, a time of grief. September 2005 is when my health started spiraling out of control. September 2005 was when I started to realize who my true friends were. So much happened seven years ago. So much happened.

As my memory rests, but never forgets what I lost
Wake me up when September ends

I fully believe that one day my memory will be at ease, but I don't know when that day will be. I believe there will be one day that's not taunted by flashbacks and nightmares and painful memories. I fully believe that will be a day where it will all just be another faded scar, another jaded memory. Kind of like the lyrics from the opening theme of my favourite anime (taken from the Japanese translation to English and not the English version): "Even when yesterday's wounds remain, take yesterday's tears and turn them into tomorrow's strength."

I don't have to let the past control me. I don't have to let myself be consumed by the memories. But just because I finally process the pain after all these years, just because I finally come to terms with the past, doesn't mean that I forget it. It doesn't mean that I have to forget it at all, but it also doesn't have to be at the forefront of my memory.

A lot has changed in seven years. I've gone from an 18 year old high school senior to a 25 year old college student. I never dreamed on my first day of high school that these seven years would turn out the way that they did: The whole ordeal with my father, losing my health, losing some of my mobility, moving to Minnesota, taking time of school, still being in College, this, that, and the other. It's kind of baffling, really, what all has happened over the course of seven years. And how in some ways I'm so different, but in some ways some things never change.

All this doesn't mean that sometimes I just want to skip the month of September, and October as well for good measure. Maybe one September, I won't just want it to end before it begins .Maybe one September, I won't want it to just go away.

will i lose my dignity? will someone care?
will i wake tomorrow from this nightmare?
there's only us, there's only this,
forget regret, or life is yours to miss.
no other road, no other way, no day but today.

It's not September yet. It will be in just over an hour. It may be a difficult time - but maybe this year at long last, I can start healing and fully living it the now, instead of being trapped in the past.

i don't remember the first time i felt unbeautiful, the day i chose not to eat

It's funny the impact just eating has on me. It's a natural human process. It's something we have to do to survive. And yet, it's something that I struggle with and that tears me apart.

I had a good dinner tonight. Best I've had in quite awhile. And because of that, I'm still awake even though it's 2 am. My brain won't be quiet. Lord knows it's a good thing I ate as my weight is the lowest it's been in years. Lord knows I need the calories and nutrients.  But it's difficult.

I know I've lost weight lately. I know I should care more about getting food into my system. But it's difficult to muster up the willingness to care. It's difficult to get food into me. I don't know what I'm going to have to do to get myself to eat. It's terrifying, really, the way this disorder, this sickness controls me.

I don't want to be this way, but I don't know how to be any other. And frankly, to cross to the other side is terrifying. To recover. To be healed. To be whole. It's kind of a paradox because I don't want to get better yet I want to. I want to yet I don't now how. What if I don't like being healthy? What if I gain too much weight? What if I flip to the other extreme and start eating too much?

And now it's approaching 3. And I still can't sleep. And it's taken me THIS long to write this short of an entry. But why? I don't want to finally meet the diagnostic criteria for anorexia, because on one hand while I feel ED-NOS is "not legit", I know it is. I know that you don't have to be severely underweight to die or have serious health effects from an eating disorder.

But at the same thing... it's kind of like a verse in the Bible. "The things I don't want to do I do, the things I want to do I don't." It just feels that I get trapped. Completely Trapped.

And  I don't now what to do. It's hard because I'm having a bad PTSD night. It's well after 3 am, everyone is asleep. Everyone, that is, but me. Because I'm scared to sleep. Because I'm afraid of what will happen if I sleep. Because being scared to sleep as a child is still ingrained in me. because I'm still at my core, terrified.

Because reason says I should have died three years ago

I am told that it is nothing short of a miracle I am alive, be it by the circumstances of life or be it by my own hand. I am told that many other people in my shoes would be homeless, would be drug addicts, would be drunkards. That I shouldn't be alive due to medicine mixups, ailments, and various things I have.

At the same time, I've been told that if I just had more faith I would be healed. If I just believed I could overcome, things would be better. The truth is, I've accepted things to be the way they are. It doesn't mean I don't channel my energy in recovery. What it does mean is like in the serenity prayer, I accept the things I cannot change and must have the courage to change the things I can.

Oh look, I can climb the twisty thing!

Just because I've accepted my disabilities, I feel, doesn't mean that I've let them pull me down. I've really beaten incredible odds. I've overcome so much. I still have much to overcome. I know that due to genetics my general health will continue to demolish itself. I know that if I try to push myself, believing if I just do a little better I can overcome, I will wind up making things a bazillion times worse. To focus on what I cannot do would be foolish. I can play on playgrounds, I can wade in the water. I can take walks. I can so much! Why pull myself down by  bashing myself?

I can play in the water!

I can't control what my father did in the past and I can't deny the impact it has with me today. I can control how I choose to act on the result. I can't control the fact that I'm disabled for likely life, but I can choose to accept it and make the best of my life, no matter how long or short it is. The important thing is that I keep on keeping on, and instead, continue to defy odds. Continue to shoot down the ones who say I can't make it. You know what? I may not make it in the traditional sense. But it doesn't mean I have to give up hope, that I have to quit at life. Instead, it fuels me to go forward, propels me to keep swimming (even though, well, I can't swim) and gives me a reason to survive.

And if you care to find me, look towards the western sky

As someone told me lately, everyone deserves a chance to fly

And if I'm flying solo, at least I'm flying free

To those who ground me take a message back from me!

Tell them how I'm defying gravity, I'm flying high, defying gravity...

Wicked - "Defying Gravity."

And I know, you won't feel this way forever

Not even a month ago, I was started on a new antidepressant. Before I was trapped in depression. Trapped.

But now things are looking up. I'm having horrible side effects, but maybe my nice shrink with a southern accent can find a similar one or maybe he can find something to counteract them.

There is just one week left of classes. One week!! It's at this lovely state in the semester where things are just not going all that well..

But it doesn't mean things are going poorly. I'm at my breaking point stress wise, but things are looking up. It doesn't mean things are perfect, but it means they are looking up. Things won't always be this way. 

Some days are still terrible. Some days I feel like relasping into self injury. I know, I know, it sounds silly and maybe it is. I recently passed the ten year mark from the first time I cut. I still remember that day, still remember it so clearly. And for so long, I thought I was so clever. That I was masking my pain. That I was dealing with my pain. That I had my own little secret way of dealing with the world, hidden under my shirt sleeves. But I was young, I was naive. I didn't know, couldn't know, wouldn't know that by masking the pain, when it came to surface, it only got worse. And so, when once one cut would suffice, now it would take two. Then three. Then four. Until my arms looked horrible. Until I had to move to my legs. And as much as I would welcome the nirvana, the bittersweet Ecstasy of cutting again... it's not worth it. At times I think the break from the pain would be worth it, then I'd deserve it coming back so much.

But the thing is? I don't deserve pain. For years, and I admit, some days I still do, it feels like  it was all my fault. Maybe if I had been a better behaved child. Maybe if I had been cuter. Maybe if I would have run away. Maybe if I would have done drugs. Maybe if I would have drank. Maybe if I would have told someone what my father was doing instead of hiding it, even denying it for years. Maybe if I would have fought back. I had so many chances in high school to say what my dad was doing. There was the time I fell apart in youth group, and one of the sponsors asked if everything was okay at home. There were the countless doctor appointments that asked if I was safe at home. There were the teachers that reached out to me.

The thing was, I was young and I was scared. Would people have believed me? Would things have gotten worse had I told? I don't know. But the thing is, it's not my fault. It wasn't my fault. It was never my fault.

And even if, for some reason, it was my fault, it doesn't make any of it okay. It doesn't make my childhood okay, even if I did mess up at times. It doesn't make what my dad did right, not remotely. And even if my actions DID cause him to act that way, it wasn't right. Not in any way shape or form.

That said, I started this blog taking one track, and it took another. Things are looking up. I'm finding hope again. Moreso, I'm enjoying things again. I'm not playing games just as an escape, but I'm enjoying them. It's the little things. I'm starting to sleep again, even! Sleep is good. Usually.

And now I'm going to play Final Fantasy 8 and talk on MSN for a bit before going to bed early, so tomorrow I can talk on MSN, clean, and do homework. So I can do what I love on Sunday and play music in church then come home and study and clean. I'm going to close this entry with lyrics to one of my favourite songs. ^_^

Spoken - Promise.
(Verse 1)
Yet another day seems like its wasted
You don't feel youre any closer to the prize
A dead end job where there's no future
Praying that tomorrow things wont be this way

(Chorus)
Things will get better this I promise you
And I know that you won't feel this way forever
Things will get better this I promise you
And I know loneliness wont last forever

(Verse 2)
Yet another day, another tired morning
You're catching up to your intentions
Your'e thinking life has to be easier than this
Maybe tomorrow things wont be this way

(Chorus)
Things will get better this I promise you
and I know it won't feel this way forever
Things will get better this I promise you
and I know we can find a way to make it better
things will get better this I promise you 

(Outro)
Things will get better this I promise you
And I know it won't feel this way forever
Things will get better this I promise you
And I know loneliness won't last forever
Things will get better this I promise you
And I know things will get better this I promise you
And I know things will get better this I promise you
And I know loneliness won't last forever

Starving for Control

There's many things in life I cannot control. When I was 17, a lot of things that were out of my control happened. My private Christian school closed down, mere weeks before the start of the new school year. My health wasn't all that great. I had poor coping skills then, so I lapsed back into cutting and my eating disorder. It started at an even younger age, but it started getting bad then. I wasn't happy, although I tried my hardest to act like I was. It was terrible.

You'd never guess I was hiding fresh cuts and living with depression..

You'd never know, never guess, never dream that I was suffering from depression. It wasn't my personality - I was the bright, bubbly girl who laughed a lot, seemed loved and well-adjusted, and seemed to have many friends. But at the same time, I was crippled with depression. I was starving for control, as a way to control my out of control life, out of control emotions, as a way to try and steer the roller coaster we call life. It seemed like a good idea, at the time, to control my weight. To control my eating. To control everything I could within my power, even if it wasn't beneficial, even if it wasn't happy. For by sabotaging myself like that, at least wen everything fell apart it was my fault and somehow, it's easier to swallow the pill of everything sucking if I can blame myself versus being perfectly innocent.

I find myself still in the state these days. To the point where my eating is to the point where I don't even want to get weighed. It feels like this:

So literally, I start starving for control. Even though it would make more sense to control my eating sensibly,
 it's not that simple. Body image is a huge problem for me, not eating serves as a form of self injury when I'm in a state where I can't relapse into cutting, and it's just one feeble way I could control. I could control my video games. I could control my Sims. I could control my pokemon.

I have a headache. Why are you dragging me into this?

I feel like I'm trapped. That this has become an addiction, and what I was controlling now controls me. What I struggle to hard to keep control of just sends me further into despair, anger, rage, pain, angst. I just feel so helpless at how badly out of control things have gotten, and I just want to reign in control again...

Though it won't be today, some day I'll hope again

It's kind of funny of how what once I controlled now controls me  What I once used as a way to control what was spinning so rapidly out of control now controls me. It doesn't matter anymore how little I weigh, all that matters is that the pounds drop off. It doesn't matter that just eating lunch or supper or a snack should be easy, it's a fucking battle. I can't tell you how many times I open the fridge, the freezer, the cabinet, and start crying from the thought of having to eat.

Eating is a natural thing, it's something we all have to do. And yet... I can't. It's not as simple as just eating something, it's not as simple as just getting better. I don't know how to do. I don't know how to eat normal. I don't know how to find the balance. I can't find the reasons to hope, to hold on, to hang in there, to eat.

It's at the point where it's not really about weight in some ways - it's a game I can play with myself, it's a form of self injury, it's a method of control. It doesn't help that I have to avoid certain foods for health reasons, it makes eating that much harder. What if I screw up and get glutened? What if I make myself sick? Why do I eat anyway? Why do I keep fighting?

I hate this eating disorder. I feel like it's eating me alive, inside and out. And that I cannot hope, dream, wish, or keep fighting as long as I have it... and I hate it.

I focus on the pain, the only thing that's real

How can you tell I'm hurting if you can't see any pain?
To wear it on my body shows what words cannot explain


This time three years ago was one of my darkest periods ever. I was deep in depression. For the first time, I had a concrete suicide plan. I was determined to carry it out, but a small voice inside me was pleading with myself to hang in there. I sent the following email to my therapist. And then proceeded to not answer my phone, not check my voicemail, you get the picture.


April 13, 2009. 5:44 pm.


"Why am I emailing and not waiting to say anything until tomorrow? The fear of chickening out. The fear of not saying what needs to be said and that would not be very productive. At all. I don't want to not say anything and then wind up kicking myself in the butt because that would just be a really bad idea. With the state of mind I'm in and the way I am thinking lately... it is just not good. Not good at all.


Just last Tuesday I was the "happiest" I've been in weeks. I use the word "happy" lightly as I wasn't really happy, per se, but more toward content. Things certainly weren't the worst but were by no means the best. And then Wednesday comes and I sink back to rock bottom. Thursday comes when I look through the rest of stuff, and I once again go below rock bottom. I'm not doing well at all, and it scares me.


I'm keeping away from people the best I can. Thursday afternoon my anger got the better of me and I was launching stuffed animals across the room. Thankfully, none hit anything and broke, but the fact that my anger got to that state was just a bit scary. I'm secluding myself from people the best that I can. I'm locking myself in my room, not really talking to people, and being very avoidant. I came out of my shell some on Easter (as I was at my sunday school coordinators. Staying in my room by myself all day would have been a Very Bad Idea) but come Sunday night I was back to where I was just the day before.


I know that I'm once again lower then I've been before. Lower than Windsor, lower than Harding. This time I don't know if I can pull myself out. This time I don't know if there's a light at the end of the tunnel. This time I don't know if I'll make it through. I'm past just merely having thoughts about suicide, it's to the starting-to-make plans stage. It's to the it's-starting-to-take-over-my-dreams stage. It's to the its-taking-over-me stage. It's to the point where I'm not seeing any way out, and it scares me. It's to the point where I do not trust myself at all anymore, where I'm almost scared of myself and that I'll act impulsively. It's to the point where I'm trying to figure out a way to get to the store in order to get something I can cut with. It's to the point where I'm just shutting down, and it's not a good thing.


I'm seriously considering skipping chapel tomorrow because I just don't want to be around people. It never fails that someone comes up behind me without warning and lays a hand on my shoulder, which winds up scaring the crap out of me. Everyone I know will be asking how Easter was and if I went home. I don't want the looks of pity when I say I didn't go home. I don't want the looks of sympathy when I say I stayed here this weekend. I just don't want it. I don't. I don't. I don't. Things are just not going well and I'm not using healthy coping mechanisms at all. I just... everything is taking far too much effort. Eating. Homework. Socializing. Everything is too much right now and I'm very overwhelmed. I can't lift myself out of this funk right now, and I don't even know if I want to. Everytime things start to look up and start to look better, I wind up lower than I have before. Why keep fighting if this is what I'm fighting for?


Bah. I'm going to hit send on this before I wind up backing out and not saying what really needs to be said. I'm going to throw myself into tidying my room now so that I'm distracting myself and not mauling on things. Good idea, maybe, maybe not. I just need to do something so I'm not just dwelling in thoughts that I really don't like..."

The next day I was admitted to the Crisis Home. And I truly believe that email saved my live. I truly believe had I not listened to that voice inside me that was pleading for help, that said "DON'T DO IT" saved me, the inner voice that told me to keep fighting. What worried Joe so much was the fact that was sent mid afternoon, the fact that there was no sarcasm. Student life was waiting for me when I showed up to my appointment and I was told I was not permitted to return to my dorm that night. That they were worried about me. 

These days, even though it's still dark, I am glad I listened to that still, small voice that begged myself to get help, that begged myself to hang in there. Life is worth living, and it is worth hanging in there for. Suicide is a very final solution to what is often a very temporary problem and rocks countless worlds and numerous lives. 

And so, with that, I close this. I'll write more later this week, such as how I got one of the quotes on my Facebook wall, how I did there, and various other things. =) 

this is your life, are you who you want to be?

I'm kind of freaked out at the moment. Okay, let's rephrase that. I'm very freaked out. I very much want to go in the ministry. I want to teach, to reach, to help. But I don't think that Director of Christian Outreach is right. I'm not made to witness to people! I can't do these face to face convos, calling people to faith! I can't help a pregnant woman, because I don't fully believe that abortion is wrong. I can't help a gay person, because I don't know that it's wrong to be gay and I've become more accepting of it over the years.

But how can I be a director of Christian outreach when bringing people into the church freaks me out? I don't want to bring new people in - I want to help the ones who are here. I go into a cold sweat, panic, puke, cry, clam up, and my mind goes blank when I have to do this stuff - even though I know it all logically. I can do it over a messenger. But if i have to do it in person? It's a living hell. I'm not made to do this! I want to teach! I want to read about Mark (my favourite gospel) and make it relatable! I want to play with children! I want to do young adult ministry! (I can't deal with teenagers :P) I don't want to pull new people into the church! I'm fine with helping the broken, Lord knows i want to help those who have been broken be it by the church or by life or both. But I'm not the one to pull them into a relationship with Christ.

I've been struggling with this for awhile. It doesn't help that my eating disorder is out of control, it doesn't help that my pain and depression and ADD are not medicated. (I go to pick up my Remeron  tomorrow). It doesn't help that I'm struggling to pass math. It doesn't help that I'm trying to find an apartment, move off campus, line up doctor's appointments. And at times it feels like I'm doing it all single-handedly. It doesn't help that I feel so stressed out.

It's like I'm playing Pokemon, and I'm up against a trainer who has the attack that's super effective against me. We're down to a grass pokemon and a fire pokemon, and I have no other pokemon left other than my poor Leafeon and they're kicking ass with Rapidash. I can't flee from a trainer battle, and so attack after attack is hurled at me until I faint, until I black out.

Y U PICK ON ME? THAT NO IZ NICE.

Ahem. Anyway, I'm struggling with this. This is my life, is it who I want to be? I try to make the changes to make things better but it's hard. And there are some things I cannot change. I guess it's like the serenity prayer:

"God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change,

Courage to accept the things I can,

And wisdom to know the difference."

It just seems like such a struggle some days. Every attack is super effective, and wears me down more and more. I just don't know what to do anymore and how to keep pulling through. 

And she fools all of her friends into thinking she's so strong but she still sleeps with the light on

My bed is soaked with sadness
My sadness has no end has no end
A downward of  spiral of dispair
That I keep falling in 
I need you how, how I need you 
(...)
Your silence is like death to me,
so won't you hear my desperate plea?
-I Need You, The Swift

It's hard some days to get myself out of bed. My alarm goes off, a few swear words slip past my lips, a stuffed animal may fly across the room. I'm not a morning person by nature, never have been. But when you're trapped in depression, when your greatest enemy is that reflection in the mirror, sometimes hauling yourself out of bed is one of the most difficult things of the day.

I suppose I make it sound like I'm drowning in depression. Some days I am. Some days I wonder why I get out of bed when I've barely slept the night before and daytime is the only time I'm able to actually sleep. When I'm running on two to three hours a sleep a night, and a couple hour nap during the day. Why I bother even trying to hope, trying to dream, when it seems like my hopes and dreams and wishes will just be crushed. It's hard.

Living with depression is like fighting a monster every morning. My days and nights are reversed. I just want solace - just some relief from all the pain I'm trapped in. It feels like just doing simple things - hanging out with friends, eating, hauling my butt out of bed, doing the laundry, drain all the effort and energy out of me and I'm left alone with my thoughts.

All I want to do is be free from this demon I battle. I want to be truly happy again, and not a person that I want to hide from. But I don't know how. I don't know how to open up about the past and allow people - friends, therapists, pastors, et al, help me. I don't know how to let people understand and even begin to give me a chance to have hope again.

For as much as I want to hope, dream, laugh, love, and carry on with my life, it scares the everliving shit out of me. All I've known for over a decade is depression. All I've known is bleakness. All I've known is living in fear and terror. And as exhilarating and thrilling the other side might be - it's completely unknown. It's something I've never felt before. What if it's too much? What if I don't like it? What if I taste the other side, and I don't like it at all? What if it hurts? What if I get a sampling of it, and I wind up falling back into depression? Would the relapse be that much worse because I've tasted the other side? Or would it be better once I pull out of the funk again, because I know what the other side is like? 

I get sick of trying various antidepressants. I get sick of feeling like this - I don't WANT to be like this! But how do I attempt something I've never tried, how do I try something I just don't know? How do I even attempt to spread my wings and fly, when every time I've tried to fly I've fallen?

Depression sucks. I'll leave you with Adventures in Depression because that sums it up better than I ever could.

Me? Stubborn? Naw, 'ya don't say.

Whoever coined the phrase "Stubborn as a mule" clearly had me in mind.

I remember in 2007 being asked what my best trait is.

"I'm STUBBORN."
"You mean assertive, right? Stubborn is a bad thing."
*pause*
"Nope, I'm stubborn."

It's true - I'm fiercely stubborn. I don't like change, I don't like things being different in any way, shape, or form. I like things just the way they are.

And so I cling onto - be it bad or be it good. And in a very sad way, my stubbornness hinders my recovery of depression, ptsd, and ED-NOS. How does it hinder it? Because in many ways, I'm just too stubborn to change. Things the way they are aren't great, but it's all I know. And I like what I know, even if it's not ideal. I like the predictability of the way I sometimes run things, and I feel that if I keep things that way, it's for the best.

I don't think it's a bad thing to be stubborn. There are times when it's a really good skill, such as when people are being a pain in the butt and you just need to get something done. It channels into determination sometimes. Thing is - I'm stubborn about things that I shouldn't be stubborn about.

I think my stubbornness helped me survive my childhood, but now I need to find a different coping skill and a different way to control things. I'm a control freak, I'll fully admit it, and it goes along with being stubborn. I'm well known for pushing myself way too far, because I want to prove I CAN do it, even when I'm sick as a dog or crawling in pain and really should be curled up in bed with a piping hot cup of tea and reruns of Fraiser. But yet - I want to prove to people that I'm capable and that I WILL do things my way, dammit!

It's not a healthy mindset. I need to learn that it's OK to listen to other people's advice and sometimes being stubborn is a bad thing. Sometimes I do have to let someone else take the reins, and trust that things will turn out okay if I don't do things exactly how I plan.

I'm walking impaired

Being disabled is really such a strange thing. This is a horribly bad picture of me, but you get the gist:

I feel that when people see the crutches, they cast a judgement. They they think I'm weak, that I'm not smart, that I'm deaf, that I'm dumb, that I'm mute (HA! I bet my friend wish at times), that something isn't right with me. I feel because I have a bad back, off-kilter balance, weak knee, and more that I'm somehow incomplete. That something isn't right with me.

And it's a horrible, horrible feeling. I wonder if I'm broken. I wonder if I can be fixed. I wonder what people think when they see me. And I wonder if I will ever live a day without pain. There is literally nothing they can do for my knee at this point in time. My back has been fused.My balance disorder has an unknown origin. As I get older, my NF will continue to progress and I will become more and more disabled. I may be able to achieve my two dreams: get a license and go overseas, but that will take more time and energy and effort than most people.

It's a hallowing feeling, knowing that I'm only 24, yet already destined to live a life of pain. I will likely never know what it's  like to be fully pain free, only how to better manage and control the pain. I will never know what it's like to do so many things that so many people take for granted. I don't know what it's like to not have a laundry list of disorders, or to make sure every place I go is somehow handicap accessible. I will likely never know what it's like to have a child, as the disorder would not only harm me, it would harm the baby. I get so angry. I get so frustrated. And I wonder why God chose me to walk this path. I get frustrated that over the course of a year I see more doctors and specialists than most people see in their entire lives.

I'm told that God must have a special plan for me, that He must know something. Perhaps he does. But it doesn't change how angry I am that I was made this way. That my life is consumed with appointments to just try and give me a normal life, something others take for granted. That in addition to the physical ailments, I was cursed with PTSD and ED-NOS (coming soon in a blog entry near you about those).

I wonder if it would be easier if I had a family support structure, that when I'm up in pain at 5:30 in the morning, crying because I can't sleep because my back kills and I can't move my leg, if that would make it better. Or if it's better that I often suffer silently, so that others don't know, don't worry, don't have the chance to care.

It's funny the thoughts that run through my head - even though I know most of them are purely irrational. I wonder how much the pain fogs them.

One December, bright and clear

For the longest time, the month of December has sucked. It's always been a hard month. Various things have happened in December over the past 6 years, and it's just an incredibly difficult month. I last saw my father that December morning, 6 years ago (I moved out on October 31, but I last saw him in December). 5 years ago, I was in the psych ward over December. Various things happened over the years, and December just seems to be the month when the shit always hits the fan.

Christmas holds a lot of painful memories. And it's hard to have a "good" Christmas in spite of all that, in spite of all the pain and anger that also happens over the holiday season.



"Have yourself a merry little Christmas,
let your heart be light,
next year all our troubles will be far away...

Have yourself a merry little Christmas,
make the Yulitude gay
Next year all our troubles will be miles away

Once again, as in golden days,
happy golden days of old
Faithful friends that are dear to us,
Will be dear to us once more

Some day soon, we all will be together
If the fates allow,
Until then, we'll have to muddle through somehow
So have yourself a merry little Christmas now.

I know that Christmas will always be difficult. I know that I won't be spending it with my biological family, and, well, that sucks. There's no sugar-coated, candy-frosted way to say it, it sucks. But until the day when I'm able to accept things, until the day where I spread my wings and fly, I can allow myself to have a "Merry Little Christmas" until then.

So tired that I couldn't even sleep

December 3, 2004.
3:43 AM Eastern Standard Time

"sometimes, i just want to give up. i just want to scream. and cry. just to avoid the look in people's eyes. just to avoid the look in people's eyes. it's why i hate talking to people, you see the pity in their eyes, not only pity, but concern, but love...

Did I say I hate love? I really don't know. I hate pity. I have having people worried about me, and concerned. And love...it almost scares me. I'm not talking about a boyfriend "oh my gosh you're so cute" love, or a grandmotherly "I want to squish you" love, I mean a more of..compassion? a more of I care about you, Angelique love. and in a way, it does scare me. having people love me. having people care about me. That honestly is a scary thing, because if I screw up, I have people who will be worried about me, because they do care. If I show them how much I'm hurting, I have people who will be worried about me, because they do care.

and it's just...I don't know. I don't even know anything anymore. Well, I know stuff, saying I don't know anything is like saying a fish doesn't know how to swim. and I just want to break down. and let someone hold me, and let me tell them what all has been eating at me. and it just seems...like I can't. like there's a wall.

And I know I've always been one to build up walls. I've built up walls for so long, I don't know if there's anyway to tear them down."
****
I wrote this 7 years ago. I was 17, homeschooled, and still living with my father. This was before all the shit hit the fan.

I wonder the same thing this days about love. And walls. Do I put up walls to protect myself, or do I put them up to protect the ones I love? Do I really love? Love still scares me so much. To allow myself to be loved, and allow myself to love. To be that vulnerable, that open, that free with someone. I don't know that I can allow myself to do that... and it scares me because I almost like my walls. They're not the best for me, but they're safe.

How do I tear down and allow myself to be vulnerable?