Individual

Something’s Gotta Give

You don’t know how much more you can take.

You used to love your job – you were great at it – but now, you don’t even want to get out of bed in the mornings.

Exhausted all the time, you stumble around, unable to concentrate or act decisively, losing things – and last week, you forgot a major meeting.

The smallest things set you off – you ricochet between rattling anxiety and bitter frustration. Even your friends have started commenting that something is wrong with you.

You go home, and there they are – hundreds of images – the newspaper, the television, social media. Nothing but bitter politics, natural disasters, crime. You look at what other people post online and feel like you’ll never live up to their achievements and expectations. Feelings of failure engulf you. 

Friends ask you out, but you make excuses. Nothing you used to enjoy seems to matter anymore. Hobbies, pastimes, and your sex life? Let’s not even go there.

Why bother?

So, you hit the pillow. All you want to do is sleep – now there’s an activity you can get behind. And sometimes you do. But more often than not, you just toss and turn. Restlessly, your mind replays the drama of all your worst moments – worthlessness, guilt, self-blame, emptiness. Tick. Tock. Tick. Tock.

Day after day.

Just putting one foot in front of the other is nearly unbearable.

Everything hurts:  your head, your back, your muscles and joints.

You’re just about to lose it. You’re all alone.

You’re hurting and feel there is no hope, no future. The only voice you hear is the one eerily reminding you, “It’s all your fault.”

But you’re not. And it isn’t.