How are you?
It’s such a common question, but it took me a long time to find the courage to respond with anything other than “I’m good.” But, then most people will ask the completely reasonable question, “What’s wrong?” And I don’t know.
I could point to some frustration with how work is going or something someone said, but I know that’s not the real reason for my pervasive yet inconsistent discomfort. It would be easy to explain if I had a name for it. But mental health struggles don’t all fit into neat categories. I’ve seen a couple of different therapists, but they were hesitant to give it a specific label.
And because it’s hard to explain, I find it hard to talk about. I find it hard to justify to myself taking some of the limited mental health resources from others when I can’t even tell you what my problem is. I’m starting to pull myself from that line of thinking, but I know it will take a long time and a lot of work.
If you compare the magnitude of your problems to others’, it’s easy to decide you’re not so bad off. But you deserve to be better. If it is a problem for you, it’s worth addressing.