Wednesday, August 31, 2005

7. my story - trapped

So picture me now if you will. In my mind, my relationship had trapped me between a wall of secrecy and a wall of marriage.

My final undergraduate year was going rough.

I was getting ready to graduate and still had no clue what I wanted to do afterwards.

I had already been pretty unstable entering into the relationship.

Things took a downward slide. It is hard to write about really. I’m trying not to sound overly dramatic about it, but I don’t ever want to feel like that again.

I went out as little as I could and when I did, I felt guilty. I didn’t go to most of my classes, preferred to remain under my blankets in bed, locked in my small dorm room. Outside, the world waited, another harsh sludgy Canadian winter waited outside, assignments, deadlines, relationships, lies, decisions taunted me from the window. I closed the curtains. Trapped myself in dark thoughts, and then pretty soon, no thought at all. It was irrational, and I cannot explain or fully understand it myself. I guess I started to kill myself slowly from the inside, rather than deal with that outside threatening to consume me. As it turns out, it was pointless, because, either way, I was destroyed.

It was a time that lasted surprisingly long, almost a year and a half, remnants of it lingering right until the beginning of this summer. A month or so before I started this blog.

It’s incredible how long I lasted like that. My calm face to everyone. I broke through once in a while and during those times I felt like I could make it. I would forget every time that I felt a little bit better, forget how easy it was to slip back, forget how deep I could fall.

Enough said about that. This isn’t the story of my depression. But I wanted you to understand, to imagine how it must have been to have THAT as a girlfriend.

He tried to help, like I’ve said before.

But even the most patient person would lose patience. When I cried on the phone for the umpteenth time, he would try to comfort me, tried to encourage me to get help, and when he couldn’t, when I was unreachable, a couple of times, he shut the phone in my face.

It kills me, even now. But not because I blame him.

I hurt X badly during this depression of mine.

7 comments:

PackerPundit said...

dang... you sound like my girl friend LOL hey I also enjoyed your post about being addicted to blogging
Peace out -- Romey

expei said...

i have never been depressed like that- so sad

learn said...

expei :)
like i said, i don't ever want to be again. it's sad cos there was nothing that wrong going on in my life... im not sure what could have been done to prevent it though.
thanks for reading!

anna said...

Everything we experience and everything we go through, makes us who we are today...

learn said...

anna-
thanks hon, yes, the more i write the more i understand this.

Jstine said...

yeah, learn, sounds like you're through it, but frankly i'd be VERY careful given most of these depressions' tendency to recur -- sometimes for a reason, but sometimes for no goddamned reason you can discern.

i had a very nasty episode 3 years ago, evidently because of a relationship coming apart -- and, as you did, i just dropped into this hopeless place. only the girlfriend -- amazingly enough, we're still together, but not very happily -- checking up on me brought me into the realm of shrinks and meds. i had one wonderful therapist who untangled my history and that, along with the meds, keeps it at bay.

anyway, don't trust it to stay away -- and as needed consider medical help (not clear from your post if you did that during your looooooong episode.

hugs, justine

learn said...

hi justine,

i'm sorry to hear that you had to go through times like this too, and i hope your relationship works out for you.

i got help with a therapist on and off during the times described here. i was stupid and never saw one regularly enough for it to be a real help.

in the past 6 months though, i've been more consistent about it and it's that which has ultimately helped.

you're right of course. once depression hits you, you are stuck with it for life in some ways. (not to be depressing, erm, oops)

a way of dealing with life, no matter how inneffectual and damaging,is still a way. and once you find it, it feels like it'll always be there, waiting for you to fall back into it when you're not paying attention.

i've made changes in my life, in my attitude since then and i hope they will stick and pull me through. i hope to brave this fall and winter without the meds, maybe pysch now and then. i try to keep an eye open for changes in mood, changes in thought. ways of acting that are like how i used to be.

thank you for the word of caution. *hug* i agree and hope that anyone who's gone or is going through something similar will take note as well.

learn