Where things are at currently…as at Saturday 27th June 2015

Well, I have 2 more tattoos.  One I have in another of my go-to self-harm areas.  It is the word H.O.P.E as an anagram.  Which is Hold On Pain Ends.  Which I think is a really great little anagram and something I need to remember.  The other one is a My Little Pony.  Simply because I am rather obsessed with My Little Ponies.

Where things are at in other parts of my life.  Well I have talked to someone about getting Grief Counselling finally.  So I am waiting to hear back once I have been assigned someone.

Something I recently learnt was that my friend’s suicide would likely have not happened if he wasn’t in the relationship he was in when he did that.  Just hearing someone else agree with that thought I myself had about things, was quite validating and has at least helped a small amount.  But no doubt, I still miss my friend a lot.  I just really miss not having the little moments of joy or celebration to share with him.  There are so many things I naturally would share with him, but now can not.

I have my wedding to look forward to, which is a nice little positive.  And now that I have more things paid for, I am feeling less stressed and more excited.

I am quite annoyed with myself for being half-arsed about my diet.  I mean I do eat mostly healthy, but I think I allow myself treats too much.  And I need to get out of this cycle of gaining what I do manage to lose.  I would like to get to my goal size and try and stay there.  I am really discouraged and depressed by how my body looks.  At least I am happy with my hair at present.  Though I prefer it when it’s straightened.  At least I can enjoy my tattoos.

I have become really good friend’s with someone I knew through the friend’s group that I am on, on Facebook.  That was the group which allowed me to reconnect with my friend Nevil.  He’s my friend that committed suicide.  Anyway,my new friend, Cherie, she was friend’s with Nevil as well.  And her, like Nevil and I, has been through similar hell with regards to Mental Health.  So she is someone, like Nevil, who I can be REAL with and knowing she truly get’s it.  Which is very important to me.  Since she is someone I care about I wanted to do something nice for her.  As I think it is really important to let your friend’s know they are special to you and cared about and that it is important to help them feel encouraged when things don’t feel so awesome.  So I got her one of these necklace’s: http://www.zazzle.co.nz/always_remember_pendant-177891982436034368.  I wouldn’t mind getting something similar as a poster or print for myself if I can find it.  I was so happy when she received it and told me how much she loved it.  Thing’s like that are priceless.

Mood wise, sometimes I feel like I am doing better.  But I do still have a hard time coping with stress. Having a friend who I know enjoys my company and whose company I enjoy is something nice.  I missed not having that when I lost my friend.  As I value friendships like that highly and when I lost my friend, I lost that.  So it is good to have a decent friend in the same city as me again.

With my Quetiapine I have been needing to take more.  But the downside to that is the hangover effect in the mornings.  That is one thing I really dislike about Quetiapine.  And I so do not enjoy how often I have messed up dreams.  So wish that crap would stop.

I feel a lot of shame and guilt about having been really quite reckless with my inheritance.  I mean I know I can’t change the past, but I just feel like I have really failed my late Grandma in how stupidly I have burnt through the money.

I was feeling quite shit a few weeks back and asked my fiance why he bothers to stay.  He always replies with don’t be silly.  I always feel a lot of guilt for what he has to put up with, with being with me.

I have been feeling quite annoyed with him a lot lately.  He seems to get certain things done upstairs in the evening and even during the day and he just pisses off downstairs to his computer most of the time.  Sometimes I feel so angered by it!  Like tonight I wanted to friggen smash hole in the walls due to how fucked off I felt.  But I didn’t because I don’t want to scare the kids.  It’s not cool though.  It makes me feel even more alone and unsupported.  I mean granted, he does a lot for me and puts up with a lot.  But I don’t like feeling so alone at home.

My parents just moved back to Nelson from Australia yesterday.  So I am super glad to have them back in NZ and close again.

I’m feeling tired, so I think I should take my meds and get some sleep.  Thanks for reading.  Night.

Recovery….Relapse

Recovery. Is it actually supposed to be possible when you have not had any talking/one to one therapy? Seems like the likes of Community Mental Health must think so. Not sure which planet they are on, but I would tend to think they are pretty damn naive to think so.

I mean, really…how the hell can I have a realistic chance of recovery without any talking/one to one therapy? The issues that led to my ‘major depressive episode’ in August 2013 have never been resolved or worked through. All that has ever happened the way I perceive it is, talking about the fact I had this episode, sought help, went for a stay in the psych ward, had some respite and check in’s every so many weeks with a Community Mental Health Psychiatrist every so often.

Telling my story doesn’t really help that much. I find myself just feeling detached and desensitized while telling my story to whomever. It is much the same feeling when I am talking to anyone about how grief and deaths of loved one’s is effecting me. I guess that could be a coping mechanism.

I know I need to get grief counselling. But I am damn scared about the idea of actually talking about and exploring the feelings and emotions associated with my grief and the events. It’s like I just push away the real raw feelings, as they hurt too damn much.

I am still really not coping well with stress. I am not coping well with the children. As I get stressed out and highly anxious really fast. So if the younger 2 are being whingy I can’t handle it. If my 5 year old and 11 year old push my buttons or ignore me and cause me stress, I can’t cope with that. And having to pick them both up from school by myself most of the time lately is hard for me. Yesterday my 5 year old wouldn’t come when I was trying leave school with her and she kept running away and being difficult. I could see some of the judgy, less compassionate Mum’s watching me, which didn’t help my anxiety or coping abilities. I think I did well to only let out a quiet “for fuck’s sake” as a response to my anxiety and stress.

My nearly 2 year old has been rather whingy in the mornings lately. As, in the 10 minutes while my fiance is taking our 5 year old into school and I am waiting in the car with him(my nearly 2 year old), he just whinges and I find it highly distressing and if I get grumpy and tell him to be quiet, he cries and then I feel like crap for making him upset.

In my mind lately, I am screaming in desperation. And internally I am often freaking the hell out. I am highly irritable and I am hating this. I get worried about how much I can handle and if I might just snap. Yesterday I found myself feeling somewhat numb and somewhat detached. And I hate how fast my mood can change. As I might go visit someone or have someone visit or do something pleasant and I will feel kind of level and then once that is over, I start feeling the effect of my depression, anxiety and grief. Suddenly I go from coping, to really not okay.

I can not handle the idea or thought of my fiance going back to work. And thankfully he has seen this and isn’t seeking work right now.

I find myself feeling really upset and angry when he just disappears downstairs and gets on his computer for hours or even half an hour and I just want to rage at him.

Rage, distress, despair, anxiety, fear, desperation, anger, shame, guilt, stress, are a list of the feelings I experience quite regularly.

My lack of weight loss is depressing me and frustrating me. I am actually being healthy about my diet and food intake. Diet wise, I am doing all the right things. And diet is quite a big factor with weight loss. So it is beyond me why I can not seem to lose any more then 2kgs. It just seems to come off slowly and then creep back on. I know I shouldn’t be so hard on myself or hate my body, but I do hate my body. It grosses me out. I do not like how my body looks. And I am stumped as to why it is so hard to lose weight. And I have had blood tests and been to the GP and nothing is abnormal.

My Family Start worker got in touch with some other mental health providers and advocated strongly for my need for respite. So they called me and said when I am in the distress and not coping to contact them and then I can be assessed. But what is crazy to me is, you can’t access respite even through them, when you are heading downhill fast. It seems they are only willing to help if you are feelings suicidal and heavily distressed. It makes more sense if they could offer that before people get that bad. Craziness!

I got another 2 tattoos. A Pisces one and a panther. Pisces, because I am a Pisces and the panther, because it represents something strong and powerful. Here is a picture of the panther one.

I have been doing the online jigsaws again this week. Which is fine once it’s finished, but I get quite anxious and agitated if I am having quite a hard time finding the right piece’s. I even find that when I am doing the word find on my tablet and I’m having trouble finding some words. Bloody anxiety!

Gah! Even just writing about anxiety makes me anxious.

Supposed to be meeting the wedding photographer tomorrow. So once I have met him and booked him, that is another significant wedding thing organized. I think after that I just need to get the flower girl dresses adjusted, remember to leave money aside for suit hire, pay remaining money on things I have only paid deposits on and closer to September, get my wedding dress zip repaired and any adjustments done. I am pretty sure there are things on that list I am still forgetting.

It seems no matter how simple you try keep things wedding wise, there is still a fair bit of stress. I guess that is because of the finalizing decisions and organizing everything myself nearly and the fact I am paying for everything. I am sure it’ll be a lovely day and really special. Only freaking out a little. I think though, it isn’t surprising it is a bit of a struggle. As I am still dealing with and going through a huge amount of grief.

Right, that will be all my blogging tonight. I will blog again some time. Hopefully soon. Depends whether I have the motivation or anything to write about.

Thankx for reading 🙂

Where it’s at with me

Well I have definitely been struggling. I am not sure if the fact that I am not really under the mental health team here yet has any bearing on that. Possibly.

I know it’s always going to be hard moving somewhere new, well newish, as I haven’t lived in Nelson for nearly 11 years. And I have only managed to properly reconnect with 1 old friend. And being how vital social contact is to my well being, it is understandable that with the lack of social contact, I feel somewhat lonely and isolated.

Due to the changes in my ability to cope since last August, things do effect me more easily and I am therefore more susceptible to more regular bouts of depression and more easily distressed.

I do acknowledge though, I have learned some useful tools from the DBT(dialectal behaviour therapy) Distress Tolerance workshop I did earlier this year. And I do believe I have definitely developed some resiliency.

I guess maybe I expect too much from myself at times and I need to be more kind to myself and not see bouts of depression as me lacking in any way. I need to remember I have had no formal therapy, so that has some bearing on things too.

I have lost someone close to me recently and I tend to flip between denial that this person is no longer and wishing it was all a big mistake and that they aren’t really gone. And then I grieve for this person’s family.

I have been going between feeling numb lately and feeling like I want to just not be in reality right now. Like I would rather just sleep all day and every day until my mood improves. Of course that is not in any way helpful. Plus my fiance does not allow me to sleep the whole day either. And yes, I do see that is a big signal I am definitely experiencing a bout of depression at present. There is that symptom and also not wanting to leave the house and delaying it as long as possible. And yes, I know this is not helpful or healthy.

I have a really hard time when friend’s of mine ask questions on my facebook photo’s, as to why my oldest daughter is not in them and where she is. And naturally I do not really want to make it extremely public knowledge among my every facebook friend, about the involvement of CYFS(child, youth & family) and why my daughter does not live with me.

I find also, the reminder by such questions about her not being here tends to make me feel down and upset.

I do not like to be more regularly reminded then I already am, that she is not here. As I already struggle with it and find it upsetting, without more reminders.

I must admit, I have been quite irresponsible with money. Sometimes I tend to do this unintentionally as a response to financial stress. I don’t know why really, as it makes things worse. I guess it is just that part of my personality that tends to want to live in a fantasy and live in a bit of a dream world and not be in the unpleasantness of my reality. It is really very irresponsible.

I guess sometimes I just want to escape my reality and that is why I do such things.

The reality is, we have accumulated a fair bit of debt since last August. Especially since my fiance resigned back in November last year. Our debt has got so bad that the budget advisor here has suggested we get an SIO(summary installment order). But that may very well mean we have to give the car back to the finance company.

So when my fiance found out we had very little money left from the bond refund, he got quite angry and I of course felt really guilty. So I went to the room and cried for a good while. And of course I start blaming myself for all the financial stress. Then I get to thinking, why does he not just find someone else. As I am sick of feeling like a burden, being a burden and I feel to blame for all this and so much guilt and I just do not want anyone else being dragged down by this. But clearly he loves me. Even if I struggle to understand why and how anyone still could after all this.

Hmm, my older sister. She still does seem to have quite unreasonable mood swings. As one minute she is asking a favour and then I check in with her and ask how things are, I try to express concern and empathy and she bites my head off. And that is upsetting and that is hard to deal with. As I am only trying to let her know I care and I want to support her if I can. I just wish she would stop throwing this back in my face or any of our families face who tries to do the same. I will not be so blunt as to tell her I feel she needs to get therapy and start to resolve some issues, so she can start to experience some joy again in her life. As I know her well enough to know that would not be taken as it is meant and that there would be a huge backlash to expressing such things. I wish she could be more reasonable.

You know honestly, sometimes I take more of my sleep medication then I should, not because I can’t get to sleep, but because I want to sleep for longer and not deal with reality or the day ahead. But I fear if I admitted that to any of the mental health team here, once I am under them, that they will limit my medication and switch back to more regular pick ups again. I know I shouldn’t do this.

Sometimes I think about trying to get to sleep without my medication and then I worry that if I try that, I may not get to sleep or I will undo any ability my body does have to get me to sleep naturally, by being too anxious about it. I guess I just need to again, stop being so hard on myself and just take time to recover and not try to hurry the process. As I know the last thing I need is to become deprived of sleep and I do not want to risk that.

Ok, I can’t think of anything else I wanted to write about, so I’ll just leave it there.

1 More Sleep!!!

It is now the evening of Sunday 29th June. Tomorrow is the big day. Moving day. And my goodness has this week flown.

I really enjoyed having more time with my oldest daughter, the one whom I have to leave behind, due to the CYFS(child, youth & family) bullshit.

I am trying to be strong and not think about how huge this is. As I do not know if I will be able to handle all those overwhelming emotions. And I do not want to start freaking out again and getting into a panic.

Deep down inside I know how much pain and grief I feel about leaving her.

I hate that circumstances lead to this.

I still feel guilt over this and blame myself and feel responsible for it.

My 4 year old had a really hard time saying goodbye to her tonight. That was so hard to watch.

You know what? I was thinking about the name Child, Youth and Family and I question why they even have the word Family in there. As it is more accurate to say, they in essence do take the family out of the equation, more often then not.

You know the main thing I look forward to about moving, is the fact I will be far, far away from the people who were bullying me.

I do not look forward to leaving my best friends behind, or this nice house.

In an ideal world I would be leaving everything bad behind. That being, the bits of my past that lead to me becoming so unwell with my mental health. CYFS and unsupportive family on my oldest daughters Dad’s side.

And in an ideal world I would be taking ALL of my children with me.

I am, honestly, so angry and hurt by how things turned out.

My mood has been pretty crappy this week. I have been feeling really on edge, hyper vigilant, anxious, extremely irritable and overly sensitive.

I kind of don’t want to go to sleep. As then tomorrow will be here. And yes, I am kind of dreading that reality.

But I guess it is a pretty natural response considering. I mean I have been living in Wellington for 10 1/2 years. And this a very big move and a huge change. And I am sure, in time I will feel at home again in Nelson.

On another subject. I am kind of pissed off that my fiancé did his usual discrete sneak off to the computer room. And where do I find him and his computer desk? While mine, may I add is all packed away. He has bloody centred his computer and desk in the middle of the room and is playing his friggen game all nice and comfy! I ask him why he isn’t dismantling the bed, like he was supposed to be doing, his response, “I’m just having my hot drink” and I was like “um, bullshit! You are playing your bloody game! Not just having your hot drink!”

It is just not a good time at present to be pissing me off.

As I am quite stressed. And I have been feeling like he has been either on my case about anything and everything. Or just criticising me. And that does not sit well with me.

I can not remember if I have posted about the latest CYFS FGC(family group conference) review and the outcome. But if I have not. I will do so in the next week.

Distraction

So far, the one technique I can find for at least some of the day, to keep myself from being overwhelmed by my over-active brain and it’s ability to get me into panic mode, is distraction.

In the last few days I’ve been doing jigsaws online or on my tablet. As it keeps me distracted while I’m focusing on it and it’s free and not messy, like an actual jigsaw.

So pretty much, I try and keep myself distracted by something, to keep my boredom and thoughts in check. As, if I’m reading, watching tv, a movie, doing a puzzle or doing housework, then I can just focus on that. Though at night, I hate the time before I fall asleep, as that’s when I have no distractions and my thoughts can start driving my nuts. I love sleep, as that is the one place I can go to get a total break from my illness and thoughts.

When I’m not distracted enough, I go between, feeling ok, to wanting to run, to feeling like a failure, feelings of guilt, panic and anxiety.

I feel like shit about the fact my fiancé had to resign so he could take over the role of looking after our baby. I stress about how things will be financially due to this. I worry about whether we will be able to afford food, petrol and be able to keep bills paid. I feel like my fiancé and baby deserve better then me and like they’d be better off if I left. I feel like I’ve screwed up my finance’s life. And feel like, things would be better for everyone if I left and just had my 2 girls with me. I just feel like, it’s such a big ask, being in a relationship with me, when I am really unwell mentally and that my family deserve better.

I get distressed when my fiancé is feeling frustrated by our baby.

I tried to interact with my baby on the weekend. I managed about 1/2 an hour maybe before he got whingy and I felt distressed. So I had to walk away and let my fiancé take care of him.

I look forward to any chance to leave the house, even if that means taking my toddler out with me. But that is only when I don’t have my baby with me. I can kind of handle going out, if it’s all of us. As I know my fiancé is there to take care of our baby. But I get very anxious and panicked if the baby starts to whinge or gets unsettled.

I’m trying to be soft on myself and just accept these feelings aren’t what I am expected to feel as a Mum to a young baby and this is my reality and this is how I am feeling at present. It’s so hard not to judge myself and beat myself up about these feelings.

It’s so hard the range of emotions I feel in each day. As my emotions are so all over the place and it sucks!

It’s good at least knowing, every fortnight I can go to the casual PND group and talk and vent.

People often thank me for my honesty and being so open about my not so pleasant experiences and feelings. And compliment me on reaching out and asking for help. Which is a positive. But it’s so hard going through what I have gone through and go through much of the time. But I figure, why pretend all is ok, when it really is not?… As, if I am authentic and real about all this, then others who experience similar will feel some relief, knowing they are not alone with regards to such thoughts and so on. And maybe that might give them the strength to reach out as well. And even if they can’t manage that, they can at least know they are not abnormal and they are not alone.

Just one last thing before I finish this post. I am finding the song ‘The Monster’ by Eminem ft Rihanna, quite good and I kind of relate to some of the lyrics. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZDXXi19_7iE

Thanks for reading. That’s all for today.

Surprise!!!

Yes this certainly is a surprise!

To me, as well as others.

I’m pregnant.

Why is this a surprise. Well, because I was supposed to be getting my tubes tied last week. So this was not planned at all. But clearly this means I am now not getting my tubes tied.

I’ve not really had the energy to come blog since I found out. Which was a few weeks ago.

I’m currently 6wks + 4 days. And all is well with baby. As I had a scan last week and got to see what will resemble a baby more so in weeks to come. Looks more like a bean LOL! And it has a good heartbeat of 120bpm.

So I’m due next year, 8th August 2013.

This baby is making me rather ill though. I’ve had to get some pretty hard out anti-nausea medication to help. As I was being so sick, regularly and feeling pretty miserable. Ending up in tears several times a day. Simply due to being SO drained and feeling weak and really unwell.

With my 1st I only had nausea and no other crappy symptoms and with my 2nd I had nausea and vomiting, but not like this. It was bearable.

Yeah, as you can imagine I have had the good old swings of hormones and emotions. That’s always fun…

Today I have still been particularly unwell, even with taking the anti-nausea tablets.

Hopefully this won’t last all of the first 3 months. As I’d like to actually feel excited, instead of miserable.

The morning sickness and vomiting starting early, at 5 weeks.

I was in shock when I took the test and it was positive. As was my fiance. He tried to blame me, for him not using condoms. Hmm, ok…

He asked what I planned to do. To which I told him, that I’m not willing to screw up my life and mental health and risk losing the plot over something I will forever regret, so we’ll cope. The short story of that, is in reference to the fact that in my late 20’s, when I was single, I had an abortion and that messed up my mental health and has continued to plague me with guilt on and off for years and mental health problems. So yeah, I was not willing to go down that path ever again. The fact I ever went down the path is hard enough, as I was always anti-abortion and I am a Christian. Though, granted, not the best one.

I got suicidal back then. And when I was trying to conceive my youngest, I had to stop trying for a while, due to the guilt and shame and feeling like I didn’t deserve to have another baby, due to that choice back then. And I got pretty depressed back then too.

My reasons for having an abortion years ago were, my mental health, total lack of support, the fact I’d been drinking heavy and taking party pills and knowing my daughter(I only had 1 child back then), whom I was a solo Mum to, would lose out and not have a good time, due to me as her parent, losing the plot and not being able to cope with my situation.

Anyway, enough about that, it’s depressing.

My fiance is no longer in shock. Yay! And has accepted that we are having another baby. And seems to be happy about it.

Still feeling yuck today. So will try take it easy and do as little as possible.