Crash

For once, I have normal drama in my life. 

I was heading to my therapy appointment this week and all was well.  I wasn't running late.  Traffic wasn't seeming to be too bad.  Green lights were coming one after another.  And then someone ran a red light.

Crash.  Right into the rear door on my side of the car.  The airbags deployed and I'm pretty sure that scared me more than the initial impact.  Thank goodness my daughter wasn't in the car with me.

The guy who hit me got out of his car and tried to run.  That didn't work out so well for him since there was a policeman sitting in the parking lot right by the intersection.  No insurance.  Not here legally.  Outstanding warrants.  All reasons to run in his opinion.  Part of me almost, and I mean almost, feels badly for him. 

However, I won't be saying that to my husband again because he came un-glued when he heard me say that.  That conversation was over the phone because he, of course,  was out of town when this happened.  And then I casually mentioned that I was driving his car because mine was low on gas that day.  More un-gluing.

I spent yesterday in bed; physically and mentally jarred.  I'm sore and achy but I'm ok.  I'm thankful.  I'm happy to be alive.  And while that may sound small to most; the thrill of living has not been a constant friend in my life.

For me, as of late, it has been about perspective.  Yes things have been highly fucked up in the past.  And yes, life still has its shitty moments.  But with a measure of perspective, living my current life isn't all that bad.

Locked

I locked myself out of Blogger.  I guess that is what I get with too many people trying to run the show around here.  But after going around and around with Blogger support, I'm back now.

I'm doing alright.  Some days are better than others.  Some days are downright awful.  And some days are Disneyland.

For real. 

We went to Disneyland for vacation and my daughter had a blast.  It is always so intriguing to watch the world through her eyes and this experience was no different.  I went to Disneyland as a kid and I actually have some distinct memories of the trip.  But what my childlike thoughts were certainly do not mirror my daughter's thoughts. 

Going through "It's a Small World" was a surprise to me as a child.  So many beaming kids.  All singing the same song.  And the real kids on the ride; they were happy.  I was not.  But I remember painting on a plastic smile to match the characters while thinking... what is happening to me is not happening to these other kids... something is very wrong...

Now all these years later I am finally trying to wrap my arms around the wrong because my mind cannot comprehend it.  And that wrong these days is in my mind, my multitude of crippled friends, because the perpetrators are gone.  The wrong is frightening and so many times I want to slam and lock the door on it to take my time to intellectualize the pain.  Yet as I analyze my pain the wrong has tiny fists that pound the door.  Louder and louder; screaming for embrace until I unlock the door that acts as a threshold between my mind and my heart.

Brown

As far as colors go, brown ranks pretty low in terms of beauty.  It is drab.  It blends in.  It is a non-color.  It is certainly not in the rainbow.

Dead plants are brown.  Rotten bananas turn brown.  Brown is what comes of all the colors when they collide together.  Paper bags are brown.  And these bags are meant to disguise a secret.  An embarrassment.  The guy on the corner who drinks all day... he hides his bottle in a obviously discreet paper bag.

I carried a brown paper bag today.  It didn't contain my lunch.  And no, it didn't carry beer, wine, or liquor either.  It's the see-you-in-six-weeks kind of day.  The day where I go sit in my shrink's waiting room and pray that I don't look as crazy as I feel.  Today is the day that I rate my mental state by the bag I carry.  Am I carrying my favorite handbag or am I carrying a loud and awkward paper bag stuffed with meds?

My psychiatrist is a nice man.  He is fairly intelligent as well.  He is the first of his profession to treat me with kindness and respect.  It's refreshing.  I don't say a lot.  I smile at least once so I do not present flat.  I answer his questions with single words if at all possible.  I am not having a good time of it and that must show.  When he starts his shrink talk with "I'd like to talk to you today about..." I know that my meds are being tweaked or changed.  Yippee.

Thirty minutes later I've paid my bill and I walk the twenty five feet across the waiting room full of people and I'm holding that damn brown bag.  Any chance of appearing normal is wiped away when people see that crinkly bag full of she's-not-quite-right samples.

I skip the elevator to avoid riding in a closed space with someone who would clearly know they were confined, for a one floor descent, with a crazy girl.  I make it to my car and I dump the bag out and cram the samples into my black leather handbag.  Much more presentable because crazy people don't carry professional messenger bags, right?

The snarky humor is here but beneath that is my anger.  I'm angry that I have to do this charade every six weeks.  I'm angry that I'm a walking stigma.  I'm angry that I pay good money for appointments and medication to help me function and unfuck what they did to me.  I'm angry that I have side effects from the cocktail of meds that I take.  I'm angry that the medicated me is better than the can't-get-out-of-bed me. 

I'm still struggling over the events with my mother in law for reasons that some may not understand.  I will try to put that into words shortly because I need to find a way to express in words what is churning in my mind.  My husband's advice has been, "just be yourself", which I always inwardly smirk at because the thought of an un-medicated "me" attending a family dinner is something I'm almost certain he never wants to encounter.

Update

I apologize for neglecting my blog.  I've been in a weird place as of late and I suppose I've spent some time pretending that all this isn't happening.  In my mind, if I don't write here then I must be fine.  Right?

Wrong.

I got over the hump of the last integration only to slide downhill into a family mess.  I have worked hard to keep my head above water and ignore the worry that comes with this shit.  And I was doing a good job until last weekend.

A breach of my intimate trust occurred nearly five years ago when my husband and I were engaged.  His relationship with his mother has always been strained for a number of complex reasons.  In an attempt to share his life with her he shared with her about me, our relationship, and what seemed to be harmless details. 

At least to him. 

When he told me about their conversation I learned that he told her about my past and my Dissociative Identity Disorder.  I have never believed that he did this with ill intent but I have always worried about her own ignorance of perception.  Because she is a truly ignorant person.

And now their conversation, as I have always worried, has come back to bite me in the ass.  For a whole other post about the reasons, she is angry with me for something I have no control over: my husband's relationship with his two kids from his previous marriage.  To pay me back she has taken my disorder, skewed it's reality, and has shared it in an open email to any family member with an email address.  All under the guise of "let's pray for her".  Like all good Christians do... and I write those words dripping with truthful sarcasm.

My husband keeps telling me that she looks worse than anyone could ever think of me.  I am having a hard time believing that.  I'm also having a hard time not being angry with him.  I know he didn't do this with the intent to hurt me five years later but the truth is that is exactly what is happening.

I have tried. I really have. But I am out of ideas or delusions that this is OK. It's not and it hurts terribly.  I am horribly embarrassed and no matter what I don't see a way out of that feeling.

I Know

If they only knew?

I know.  I have been with you for many years and it is easy to say that I know you just as well as you know yourself. 

I watched you as a small child reach out to love them.  I watched you as an older child dying to be loved.  I have watched you as an adult love your own child.  I know you and I see your love for those who love you back as well as those who never did love you.  This ability to love is amazing and it is something not everyone in this world possesses.

This love makes you good.  This love also makes you unlike him, or her for that matter.  You will never be like him because you are not sick.  Sick is doing what he did; sick is raising you in a nightmare like she did.  And while I know how bad you feel, you are quite healthy despite your pain. 

Despite your pain you have not quit.  Despite your pain you love.   Despite your pain you grow.  We haven't always known if we were going to make it.  Many times I have doubted our fate.  But today I can tell you that we ARE well and we are going to make it... because of you.  You are strong, you are loving, and you are not them and you never have been like them.

I know you and I know we are going to all right.

-James