You’re doing enough // You are enough

I have something I need you to know: nobody is doing well. I don’t care what you’re seeing on social media, or the image that people are conveying in public, but I want you to know that this pandemic has been LONG and it has been UNBEARABLE. We’re all struggling, and it comes in waves. Whether it is clinical depression or burnout, or maybe it’s panic attacks and dissociating for hours, everyone is just getting by in the way that we know how.

Please stop measuring how well you’re “doing the pandemic”. One minute you might be feeling fine, and the next moment you’re crying in the grocery store while wearing your tattered pajamas because they’re sold out of your favorite chips. One moment you might be connecting with a friend and feeling a sense of hope, and the next moment you sit in traffic and start feeling that all familiar existential dread. For many of us we are experiencing an immeasurable grief; grief for our lost loved ones, grief for lost connections and opportunities, grief for lost time, and grief for our past selves. People are surviving a global pandemic, and we still don’t feel like we’re doing well enough, like we’re not doing enough….like we’re not enough.

I want you to know that you’re not alone. I want you to know that this prolonged health crisis is a product of mismanaged government, an overexerted medical system, a capitalist mentality of profit over people, and the exploitation of people’s time, resources, patience, and faith. We will come out of this. We will be changed from this.

It’s okay to need someone to talk to about the collective trauma we are all enduring. The feelings you are experiencing are valid, and you are not alone in this struggle. We’re all doing the best we can, whether that’s binge watching Bob’s Burgers for six hours, or finding the courage to quit our job to work for ourselves. There’s no right way to survive a pandemic, but you might need a therapist to help you process that negative self-talk and that disillusionment with humanity at large.

Drink a glass of water, take it one day at a time, buy yourself some flowers, and call a therapist. You have all of my love and support.