Day 134 – Thursday Tryouts
Day 134 – Thursday Tryouts
I know I have mentioned it before but I cannot over-emphasize how nice it is to live in short-term furnished housing – all that they have to offer coupled with incredible customer service makes being away for months at a time feel comfortable. And even though I will be moving into my own house with my own fantastic Lubbock lawn care, I will miss this place. I doubt I will weep over having to leave it behind but I just wanted to remind myself to be thankful for providing it for me in what has proved to a be a major life year for me. I might have to come over in the summer and swim a few final laps in the pool just for old times sake. I’m sure they would let me but might be a little worried about my mental state. I worry about my mental state sometimes too.
Speaking of that, have you ever known someone who was going along fine in life and at work, but then they got so stressed out that they had a nervous breakdown? (I know that’s not the official terminology but I think you know what I mean when I say it.) I know a guy who was going along very well and truly experiencing success as a counselor when one day he had a panic attack and ultimately went all the way down from there to a point where he couldn’t work at all. He was diagnosed with severe anxiety and severe depression. He’s on medication now but he had to leave the counseling field because he couldn’t handle the pressures anymore. It was shocking to me when I heard about how far he had fallen. And I know there are thousands and thousands of people who have the same sort of thing happen to them. What a terrible misfortune! I try to keep up with Keith (his name) as often as I can. Even now, he tells me that he never saw it coming. He didn’t notice any signals that he was going to crumble like that, but that he struggle he went through and the struggle that he still has affected not only his job prospects but his family as well. He said once, “It’s not easy to be a broken man and it’s even harder to be married to one.” I wonder how this kind of drop would affect Melissa and me. What if her nursing career was sidetracked by a malfunctioning Central Nervous System? What if my sales and marketing vocation made me feel so much pressure that I fell apart. I know that a lot of this sort of thing can be genetic that just pops up for some people – I don’t think it runs in my family or in Melissa’s family but with the speed and harsh demands our culture puts on all of us I would say it is a real possibility.
With this in mind, I asked Melissa if she had ever thought about this issue. She said that she never has but that she has felt very close to burning out at different times. We both assured one another that if something like this happened to one or both of us that we would try and be as supportive of each other no matter the limitations that would come along with such a mental affliction. We both agreed that it would be hard to press on with one of us getting hit by severe depression and/or severe anxiety, but we both said that our love for one another would not be conditional. Once we said, “For better or for worse,” we would have to stick with that.
Have any of you had this happen to you? If so, what are the signals that someone needs to watch out for so that they don’t fall all the way down? Any depressed or anxious people out there who have advice? I would love to hear any comments…
