Thursday, December 2, 2010

The Weight

Everyone one of us has heard the phrase "I feel like a great weight has been lifted from my shoulders". For a lot of people, most I bet, I think this is a purely metaphorical thought. For those that it is literal, I imagine a person hefting off a large backpack after a long hike in the wilderness. I always knew what a person meant by the phrase and even felt it myself, after a school paper was submitted, a large project at work was completed, when some great psychological or emotional weight is removed.

A few weeks ago, I felt something that I had not felt before, something I never really thought would happen. A few weeks ago, as the psychological and emotional worries and troubles that I have allowed to continued to allow to build upon me, I felt a physical weight lower itself onto my shoulders. I don't know how to describe it, other than like a sandbag, wrapped from shoulder to shoulder around my neck like a yoke. Honestly, to me, I swear this thing has real weight. Some days the weight feels so heavy that it slows me down, physically - my walking even slows. Without going to into details, I can even pinpoint the exact moment I felt it. Some days it's not so bad, others I can barely get out of bed. Don't get me wrong, I know it's all related to my depression., and I know it's some sort of psychosomatic reaction to all the stress I'm feeling these day. Still, this strong of a physical reaction to all this has really surprised me.

Sometimes I feel very lost with the direction of my life. It's similar with this weight as well. I think I know vaguely what I need to do to lift it, but at the same time I just can't seem to see how that would work. I don't mean, that I don't believe that I can't get rid of it, more that I don't understand to process, which just makes me feel even more lost.

1 comment:

Deceon said...

With all the above said, I have to say that depression feel like ridiculously self-indulgent affliction. Even when I'm in the deepest throws of feeling sorry for myself, feeling overwhelmed, and feeling hopeless, I still feel like I'm being self-centered and honestly silly. I don't understand it, but there is a part of me that feels depression is a wholly first world problem, that it is a sign of blessed I am, to even survive and live in a time and place where I even have time and effort for such thoughts and "pursuits"