Its a quarter to five on an ordinary everyday Thursday. I’m sitting on the couch at my sister’s place, happily trundling my way around the internet. Watching terrible soaps on the tv (not so much watching, as having them playing for background noise so I don’t feel too lonely). Wishing it was still raining outside, but desperate for sunshine and fresh air. Missing Sam ever so much.
There’s the pain though. I’ve damaged my ears somehow, we’re putting it down to the ear plugs I’ve been wearing of late. My entire right side of my face and head just ache, constantly. Its beginning to get hard to swallow, and its a bit hard for me to close my mouth. I don’t think its associated, but in the last few hours a number of very painful sores have begun appearing in my mouth, all of them on the right hand side. My ear hurts, there’s a constant crackling sound and it feels very… wet? Its like there’s water trapped in my ear, and although some of it is slowly seeping out, the rest doesn’t go away. Its even causing pain down my neck into my shoulders.
So I’ve stopped wearing them, sleep has not been happening though. And I can feel my anxiety levels going through the roof. Aiee.
Been struggling with depression again, the last month or so has been hard. Not how I saw myself leading the time after my wedding. I don’t put the way I’m feeling down to the fact that I’m married at all though, nor does it have anything to do with Sam (except for making things a little difficult between us). Mostly, the lack of work and the lack of company other than Sam and Anton are the causes. I went two weeks without going any further than the letterbox. And in those two weeks, the only people I saw were Sam and Anton. And that was only for a few hours between them getting home from work, and going to bed.
With no outside contact, I’ve been leading a very introverted, lonely existence. It was nice for the first week or so. An opportunity to reflect, rest and think about things. To try and sort my life out. The months leading up to the move to Perth and the subsequent week or so thereafter were some of the busiest, stressful months of my life. I enjoyed them, every step of the way (apart from the problems with the deli) and would live them again but all I wanted was a break. I got that break, but there doesn’t seem to be any end to it.
I’ve been feeling less and less like dealing with people, become irritable, cranky, anxious and snappy. Well, I shouldn’t say less and less like dealing with people perhaps… I mean, I want company because I know I’ll feel moderately better if I see people more often but I’ve gotten to the point where I no longer feel comfortable around company again. Its frustrating feeling awkward around people when you’d finally gotten over that.
I tried to curb my tempers the other week. But it seems as though I’d begun to rub off on Sam, so he was feeling much the same as I was. He too doesn’t socialise anymore, but at least he sees people during the day while he’s at work. We’ve become hermits of sorts, and its making us both irritable. So I tried, I tried a lot, but it was hard to curb tempers when Sam’s nerves were so frayed as well.
So Sam and I sat down last Friday and we talked, something we don’t seem to have done in awhile. We spoke about how we’ve been feeling, and I told him my depression was back. I apologised for the way I’d been behaving, and we agreed that something needed to be done to fix things. I won’t go into what we decided needed to be done, I’d rather not that’s all, but I can say with some certainty that things have changed a little in the last week. For the better.
I’ve smiled more, laughed more, felt happier and more like myself than I have in awhile. I still don’t feel as though the shackles are loosened enough for me to break free from them… but I know I’m well on my way. Part of it was the relief of talking about it. I’d been so ashamed of the way I’d been feeling, that I tried to hide it from Sam (he’d noticed, of course, but didn’t want to speak about it in case it upset me) for as long as I could. I just didn’t want him to think badly of me. Or to hear any accusations, or blame… Childish of me I know, he’s my husband and I’ve always been able to talk to him about anything and everything. But I hadn’t been able to help it.
So yeah, the relief of telling him how I’ve been feeling has gone a long way to making me feel better.
Since writing the above I’ve had a phone call from Sam (he’s currently in Newman for work, 1184km away). Funny thing was, he wanted me to call him tonight. To share out the phone bill a bit while he’s away (weird). Apparently he forgot though and really wanted to hear my voice, so he rang me as soon as he was able to. After telling me to go to the doctor’s about the above (I can’t so we argued about that for a few minutes) he went on to tell me that he really IS serious about moving up there.
He wants to do fly-in/fly-out. So he’d be up there for work 3 weeks, then come back for one week off. I’d see him one week out of every four. And of that one week he’d spend the first few days sleeping. Then running around on errands that I was unable to do. Then catching up with mates. And somehow trying to fit me in there somehow. Not taking into consideration the fact that I’d be up here by myself for three weeks with no transport. And I wouldn’t be able to get money, because he’d have the card. My pay would go into his account, when I got a job. Bec said its “no big deal” but it is for me. If he went…
So he said, well… we’ll rent a place up there. You could get a job, and on my off-week I could either stay up there and have a break, or fly back and visit friends and family. Its an option I like better, and frankly its one I’ve been trying to convince him we should do for awhile. We’ll see what happens, he seems really keen. Of course I’d be even more isolated… but Newman has to be better than Perth doesn’t it?