#pers0n4al

[onlineproblems]

anyway i'm just putting my thoughts in order this is so boring to anyone but me

God my mood took such a huge dive after our mini vacation because I was so exhausted. The exact same thing happened last year when we took a trip. Which is when I ended up self-harming. I was expecting the mood dysregulation this time so I took care of myself better but still. Jesus. I mean it helped that I didn't have to go back to a horrible job but at the same time I often feel like a leech because I only work a few hours a week right now. I know that's not the point of life but hey. You get this idea of usefulness and worth drilled into you and it's hard to separate your identity from creating capital. And obviously I'm aware of that, he's aware of that, but at the same time we both have those identical pressures on us so it feels very unfair for me to (seemingly) fuck around all day while he has to work 40 hours and be basically the sole provider. I haven't worked full time in a year now. And I keep getting interviews and not getting hired. The job market sucks but it does feel like I'm deficient somehow. Like why wouldn't they want me?? Do I have to settle for making minimum wage (or less) doing work I'm far overqualified for, and would be miserable doing?

Aside from that, it's been really hard to focus on learning. I'm unmedicated for ADHD because I can't tolerate any meds and the best I can do is be aware of my limits and work around them, play to my strengths. But I see other people succeeding and learning faster than me, and I feel so deficient and stupid. Why haven't I grasped this yet? Would I already have a job if I were just better, smarter? Am I just not applying myself enough? I always know the answer is, "You're working within your limits; your best is different from someone else's" but it still kind of hurts to feel like your potential is being wasted. To feel like everyone is looking at you and thinking of you as a failure, or lazy, or pitying you.

Am I happy? Yes, frequently. I enjoy my hobbies, I love my spouse, I feel more rested than I have in a long time, and I often feel fulfilled learning something that does actually challenge me. But I can't help my insecurities, the imposter syndrome.

I'm also lonely. I used to have a large friend group, and now I have two friends that I see on a regular basis. I have friends that I talk to online a lot, but as much as I love them, it doesn't satisfy me in the same way as being in someone's presence. If we ever moved, or if my two friends ever moved, I would be back to zero. My anxiety, especially about driving, makes it particularly hard to make friends in a city where you can't do anything without driving to get there. Not feeling capable of driving also makes me feel pretty pathetic. I can do it for short distances in areas I'm familiar with, but getting on the freeway makes me feel like I'm having an out-of-body experience, and not in a good way. Every time I manage to drive somewhere I feel this sense of exultation that I accomplished a huge feat, followed by such a hollow exhaustion that I often feel drained for the rest of the day. How are you supposed to maintain friends like that?

And these are just my small everyday concerns. In the back of my mind during all these I'm aware of the fact that the US is a flaming shit log right now, and I can sign petitions and donate money and vote in my primaries and do whatever and the world is still heating up and people are still getting fucking shotgunned and legislated to death and wrung out like a sponge by insane costs of living and corporations and billionaires are smoking petrol cigarettes made of corpses lit by fossil fuel private jet matches. So what do you. You just don't think about it most of the time.

I don't know. I think I'm really tired right now so naturally my outlook is more bleak, and if I had gotten more sleep I would feel better and happier. But I think I do still feel numb a lot and that I bury my head in easy distractions like TV and tumblr because facing painful emotions is just hard. I'm a chronic avoider. I put off conflict of any kind. If I think I see it coming, I close my eyes until it runs me over. I'm not as bad as I used to be; I'm trying to articulate how I feel more, and to be proactive about developing healthy coping mechanisms, but I think I'm not great about being self-aware yet. I think it still creeps up on me and I'm not aware until it's right over me.

At least I knew this time, before this trip, what was going to happen. I wouldn't say I dealt with it in the best way, but I prevented myself from self-harming and I talked about how I was feeling and I let myself feel angry a little bit. I had a fawning reaction for a lot of the time, but I was more aware of it. I can recognize the patterns better. And instead of giving into the compulsion, I felt the feeling and then let it pass.

This is probably just always going to happen. I mean, I still have the same impulses from my eating disorder that I've always had. I don't really think they've changed or gone away at all. I just don't act on the impulses anymore. I haven't for a couple years. Not to say I won't relapse, but again, I'm seeing the patterns and resisting the impulses. Wanting the better outcome instead of the immediate release of satisfying the compulsion.

I guess all I can do is keep trying and desiring the better outcome, trying to think in the long term. (It's so hard when "the future" is something I can't even visualize! It's liquid, nebulous, anything could happen, I don't have a plan or anything definitive that I want) (What do I want? There's a few things I guess I could daydream about -- having a yard, but I don't need that. Pursuing my hobbies, I guess -- but I can do that almost anywhere. Having friends -- hopefully some of the same ones as now. Being happy with my spouse, being comfortable in our house or apartment, working enough to live off of and maybe to retire early. Who cares? There's no set path to any of these things.) So yeah. As long as I'm engaging in healthy patterns more often than not, I can achieve the future I want. Right?

Anyway. This is a mess but I feel like I got some of the most tangled threads unraveled.