Spending Time in the Hole

How I handle mental illness pitfalls

Hello, Light Bringers!

This past week has been a rough one for me. Today’s post is about how I handle slumps, mental health spirals, and getting stuck in the hole.

sitting in a hole
looked up to see honking geese
the eye of a friend

Spending Time in the Hole

I’ve always known that I’m wired differently from most people. In middle age, I was diagnosed with two anxiety disorders, a depression disorder, and ADHD. Looking back at my youth and early adulthood, I can see that I’ve lived with these conditions for as long as I can remember and was fortunate enough to develop some unique coping mechanisms that allowed me to be “high-functioning”.

Sometimes things get dark. I call it falling into the hole. Before I was more mindful of my brain and body, these times in the hole could last weeks or months, and led to some of the most challenging experiences of my life.

This past week, I fell into the hole again. My trips to the hole are much less frequent now and I have a lot of tools to help me get out, but there is always a moment when I’m not sure if I’ll ever feel anything ever again.

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