Thank’s COVID-19 for bringing this up: Validating Lived Experiences with Depression.

We’ve all heard it before. Whether through corporate reminders to “mind your mental health” or the school speech on “it’s okay to not be okay”. But deep down we know it’s not. We know that people can say one thing and believe another.

How? Well because that’s us.

Or at least, that’s me.
And for me, it is not okay to not be okay.

But I wouldn’t tell you that.
And I learned that from somewhere, my guess is internalized societal values. Because though society may say it is okay to not be okay, they sure as hell don’t mean it and I sure as hell won’t believe it till I see it.

As a result, depression and its lover, anxiety, is something I deal with. Alone. And I struggle with that. I have for a long time. Long before COVID-19 said it was okay, long before Bells “LetsTalk” bullshit and long before society said a year of social distancing finally gives us all an allowance to need therapy or start campaigning on the dangers of treating mental health any different than our physical health.

So I want to talk about that. And I want society to know that some of what you might be experiencing now, because of COVID-19 restrictions, lockdowns and social distancing. This horrible ‘new-normal’ of yours, is an old normal for me. And I wouldn’t be surprised if it’s an old normal for many others as well.

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To be continued…