Okay, so let me just start out by saying that I try to see the bright side of everything, I have always been thankful for that trait of being an optimist, but let me tell you: sometimes ya need to feel all the feels!
Life can bring about some crazy things and situations that you would never expect to find yourself in.. Often times, I have found myself saying "well this sucks but... Or "this really upsets me but... It could be worse.. Others have it so much worse than I do" Well let me tell ya, if you find yourself doing this.. Stop it! Just stop! Sometimes you just need to be able to say (and without guilt) wow, this really does suck! I am not saying that you need to throw yourself a pity party every night.. In fact, please don't.. Because that's just not productive and only leads to puffy eyes, a red face, and a headache ;) Not to mention those negative feelings and attitude can be a hard rut to get out of.
As a mama, especially lately, I have tried to turn every bad situation into something positive and it's not healthy.. Pretending to be happy or okay when we are far from being okay is just not right. Something I remind myself every day is that every person we come into contact today is fighting a battle we know nothing about.. Recently, I was asked by founder of Postpartum Progress to submit a photo of myself along with a description as to what I was going through at the time the picture was taken; the days when I was going through some of the darkest days of my PPD/PPA. Several other women submitted their pictures and descriptions and it was seriously so eye opening. Some people are really really good at hiding their inner battles. I mean, heck, I was trying to support others and help them when I could barely help myself. I might catch some grief for this, but I sometimes wonder if the people who seem to have the most positive outlooks all the time are fighting some pretty awful battles within theirselves..
This could really go for any 'invisible illness' . I struggle with and have family members that struggle with many of these, as I'm sure a lot of you do (ASD, Endometriosis, MS, Crohn's, Celiac's, Lyme's, Fibromyalgia, rare genetic disorders, Lupus, depression, anxiety, Bipolar, etc) the list goes on and on, but the point I'm trying to make is that these people fight battles within theirselves every single day, battles many cannot even begin to comprehend, yet no one even knows, often leading to feelings of depression and loneliness. I think society kind of teaches us that if a person looks okay, then they must be okay. Oh how interesting it would be if everyone could see what is going on in the inside of peoples' bodies... There would be a lot more understanding and I think negative stigmas would decrease.
This post has gone on longer than intended, the whole idea of this post came from today's blog post by Postpartum Progress 'You Can't Tell By Looking' After looking back on not only my photo, but several others, it's extremely disheartening to me that so many people suffer every day in silence. So I'm here to say: it really is okay to not be okay.
