Tuesday, November 6

Giving In

In July, I accidentally came off my antidepressants that I had been taking for over a year following a diagnosis of Post Traumatic Stress with secondary depression and anxiety. I had been feeling a lot better, was managing day to day life and my own feelings and so when Wriggles was rushed into hospital, asking someone to go back and collect them for me was not even in my top ten of priorities. In fact, it wasn't until pretty much the end of the stay did it occur to me I didn't have them. When we did get home, complete with NG tube, I was really a bit of a mess to actually register whether I should re-start taking them and was quite distracted by the fact that we had appointments and community nurse visits coming out our ears and that my mum came up for a fortnight to keep an eye on us (ie. to make sure I wasn't tipping the loony scales). I was so fatigued throughout the summer months from admissions, then surgery, then getting to grips with a gastronomy tube and then coming to terms with the CP diagnosis that the world was slightly spinning. Who wouldn't struggle? I got dressed (if mis-matched), left the house (because I couldn't bear to always stay in) and Did Things to try and amuse the toddler. We had some fun, survived the second birthday and then landed in hospital again and since then I have been struggling to bounce back. After a few horrid days, it all subsided and I wondered what I was making the fuss about. But since then, it has been creeping back up on me like a little dark cloud hovering over my head following me around and is not going away. I feel like I am teetering on a tightrope wire over an abyss, about to fall any minute into an untold pit. I can't switch off the worry, both irrational and rational, however hard I try. I can't relax or concentrate.

On Saturday, we went for a Halloween soiree (read: small gathering of 4 toddlers and cheese on cocktail sticks at tea-time) and I had a G&T. Because my previous medication didn't mix with alcohol, it had been virtually two years since I had had a drink with the exception of the day when I got the letter confirming CP where I drank enough rum to feel completely numb and send me to sleep. So, understandably, this one drink sent me a little squiffy. As I walked back at around 8pm with the Wriggly one in her pushchair dressed as a cat grinning madly, with firework displays going off around me, it felt like walking on air. I wasn't in ecstasy, just pleasantly cushioned with a warm and fuzzy feeling enveloping me. I didn't worry, I didn't obsess. And then the next day, it hit me. I used to feel like that at least the majority of the time. I used to feel like that pre-child. I used to feel that way when my PTSD and it's entourage was being effectively dealt with. I used to feel Alright, I used to feel Relaxed, I used to Smile without force. Maybe I didn't float everyday, but I didn't drag.

So I am giving in. I am going to plead with my GP to let me try medication again. I feel like I am struggling and I need a cushion to get me through this next bit. I have been patiently waiting for this 'low mood' to lift and it is doing nothing apart from drawing in closer. Memories, feeding tubes and hurt doesn't go away just like that. But if I could a little less like a zombie, that would be marvellous thank you very much. Please.

5 comments:

  1. Whatever it takes to make you feel yourself again. Good luck.

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  2. Its not giving in - its sensibly getting a little bit of extra help on a very difficult road. Very sensible.

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    1. thank you. Yes, I don't know why an earth it feels like managing on your own in superior-crackers really! I know it's the right thing before it gets silly. x

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  3. It takes a really responsible person/mother/wanna be gin drinker to get off their arse and do something about how they have been feeling. whats more a break is totally acceptable after everything that has happened over the last few months. Even super mums need the odd pick me up! Look at Mary poppins, you can't tell me she wasn't on something!
    Tea parties on the ceiling? I'll say no more.

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  4. It is not giving in, it is admitting you need some help and really with everything you have had to deal with it is totally understandable.

    Hahahah,Leanna - Mary Poppins must have been on something :)

    Sam x

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