The Mighty Logo

What I Want You to Know on the Days I Can't Really Be a Person

The most helpful emails in health
Browse our free newsletters

I can’t really be a person today. Nothing caused this to happen, it just kind of did. It’s something that happens to me sometimes. I have a lot of days like this.

I’m going to be staring into space a lot today. Even the tiny tasks seem gigantic, and it will take me a while to get them started. I’m about 30 miles from my bed, and I want to crawl back into it right now. I want to sleep for days. I wish it was the weekend.

Sorry if it takes me a second to understand what you said, my brain is full of a dense fog and I can’t seem to shake it. Is it depression or my thyroid? I don’t know. Does it matter? It’s happening. I don’t know.

Sorry if I seem distant.

I feel guilty for being around you. I feel like like I’m leaking negativity wherever I go and sucking the energy out of the room. I feel like I’m a sickness, a walking contagion. I feel like I need to isolate myself from everyone else so I don’t bring them down with me. Nobody else deserves that.

My mind is screaming I need to be alone but I know I’d fully collapse into myself the second I was. I know I’m hard to be around when I’m like this, especially when my brain wants me to push you away so I don’t spread my sickness to you. But please stay with me. I need you.

I wish I could talk about it and it would just go away. I’d scream about it if I could. Writing it out helps, but my body still feels like it’s full of cooling wax.

I’m sorry for not talking about it more.

I know I should, but it’s so hard. It’s no wonder therapy was always so difficult for me. It’s so hard for me to find people I can open up to, and even if you’re someone I feel like I can open up to, sometimes I just don’t know how to explain what’s going on in my brain.

Deep down, I feel like I don’t deserve to be heard. Thank you for staying with me even when I can’t find the words.

I’m having a rough time sorting through the lies I’m hearing right now.

I feel unworthy of love, guilty for being loved and cared for. I feel like I’m a horrible person for not being able to believe I am loved right now. I feel like I don’t amount to anything, that there’s no point in trying to reach for anything because I don’t deserve success or happiness. I feel like a fraud, a failure.

And all of this feels perfectly logical to me. They don’t feel like lies at all. I feel bad for needing so much convincing.

The truth is, today I just feel bad.

I’m unsettled deep, deep down. Something in me is shifted, a piece that doesn’t quite line up.

Thank you for staying with me, anyway.

Follow this journey on the author’s blog.

Photo by Brooke Winters on Unsplash

Originally published: November 20, 2018
Want more of The Mighty?
You can find even more stories on our Home page. There, you’ll also find thoughts and questions by our community.
Take Me Home