‘I’m Not OK’ (and That’s OK)
Sometimes we feel all alone and all we want is for one person, just one, to take us aside and ask, ‘Are you OK?’
“Hi, how are you?”
“Yeah, I’m alright thanks, are you? Well, no actually I’m not, I’m not OK.”
I’m not OK.
Three small words, yet three of the biggest words you can ever say out loud. Yet, to so many people — and especially men — these words are almost impossible to say. Some people retreat ever further into themselves, others overcompensate by being overly cheerful as they try to maintain the illusion that they are fine.
No matter who surrounds us — friends, colleagues, loved ones — sometimes we feel all alone and all we want is for one person, just one, to take us aside and ask, ‘Are you OK?’
The conversation that opens this post was the first conversation I had with my doctor as I slid into my first crippling depression. It had been coming for around 3 months and getting worse to the point that it was seriously affecting my ability to function in daily life. My grip was loosening day by day as my mental health deteriorated and it was becoming more and more apparent to me that this wasn’t just going to go away.
