As you may have noticed, my blog has been slowly tapering off. I haven't published a post in over a month and a half. Even before that, my posts were getting more and more sparse. While I have many reasons why my little blog has been neglected, there are two circumstances which are contributing to the slow suffocation of Life Less Sweet.
#1. I've been channeling my writing energy into more creative enterprises. My last post shined a spotlight on NaNoWriMo, a writing challenge that happens every November. Even though November has come and gone, one of the most valuable lessons I gleaned from the challenge was merely the knowledge that I am ABLE to create stories.
Though writing has been part of my world since I was ten years old, I'd mostly stuck with either prose-style poetry or short stories. While short stories are still TOTALLY my wheelhouse, I've discovered that longer works of fiction can be written by using chapters as short stories which are woven together to create a longer narrative. Any time I sit down to write (which I am trying to develop into a daily habit) I end up desiring to chip away at my latest novel rather than popping a quick blog post onto Life Less Sweet.
My fiction style is still in its experimental stages. I'm still figuring out my voice and discovering how to craft characters and themes that are meaningful to me. The more practice I get with working out stories, the better my work is becoming. Honestly, it feels good and right to spend my writing energies on these endeavors.
#2. I feel a TON better than I did when I started this blog. At the time of my first post of Life Less Sweet, I was in the throes of a major depressive episode brought on by a gross combination of a bad foster care placement, mothering small children, and a big ol' serotonin deficiency. While sharing on this blog has most certainly been cathartic, the main goal of shining a light into the uncomfortable places of my heart was to reduce the shame and secrecy that surrounds people (especially people of faith) who struggle with mental health issues.
Through this blog, I have discovered that, while my story is unique to me, the elements that make up my struggle with depression and anxiety are common to many of the people in my life. Too many of us share this condition to allow the matter to be a source of stigma. I want to do what I can to bring the conversation to a healthy and productive place...thus the blog.
In the course of the four years this blog has been around, I've dealt with my depression and anxiety with a combination of medication, therapy, nutrition, and faith. It's helped. My mental health is currently very successfully managed, especially since doubling my dose of sertraline this fall.
Here's where I should tell you that I have been cured and there is no need for this blog any longer...but, as wisdom and experience have taught me, successful management of depression and anxiety are NOT the same as being cured of them. These illnesses are chronic and probably life long. I cannot know what will come up in my life that could potentially pull the rug out from under this precariously stacked management plan. Therefore, I'm not going to officially end Life Less Sweet. Instead I am going to take my cue from Mr. Joey Tribbiani and place my dear blog into the freezer where it will be available to me should I have need of it.
Life Less Sweet: Documentation of my struggle with depression and anxiety.
