hard times

i should feel better than this. there is no reason to feel like i've been feeling. my life is good. i have a partner who cares about me, i'm not getting abused, i got approved for ssi, we have housing. w got her tax refund, so we've even got money for treats.

but i feel crummy. i am depressed. probably part of it is that if the stuff on the outside of my life is fine, and i'm still feeling crappy it feels like there's nothing i can do to feel better. if i can't be happy now, when things are going all right, then i'm never gonna feel happy. if i don't feel loved by w, if it just doesn't make me feel like someone will take care of me and keep me safe, and if i can't do that myself, then it's like these feelings aren't ever going to ease up.

i guess i should try to let other parts come out more, but i keep winding up being the one who is out. not enough that i can just get it over with and stuff, but enough that i'm mostly the one here. i dont know. i guess i should just try to do the things the other ones do and not let things slide i cant be bothered i just dont care but the other parts are out enough that w is sticking around. theyre out enough that i dont quit therapy even though i think that would be better. but theyre not out enough for them to be happy.

i dont even know if i want them out. i guess when they are out i dont feel as bad or something. at least there are times when i am not aware of whats going on around me or how i feel. there is a dotted line in how i live, where there are times that just dont happen for me. mostly if someone else is out and im not there at all then its like that time doesnt exist and i disappear or something. is that better? i guess its better than hurting so much i want to be dead. but then the next time im out then i still hurt this badly and i am getting tired of hurting and since i cant decide to just disappear and not exist any more then maybe its better if i can be out more and figure out how to stop hurting. but i dont know how except the one way and if i talk about that then there will be evidence if someone wants to put me in the psych ward. i dont really want to be dead i just want to stop hurting. and i dont have much hope for that. i feel like if i cant feel ok now then what reason do i have to think i would be ok in the future?

i know im not supposed to feel that way or talk about it or something. im supposed to say oh, poor me, i went through trauma when i was a kid of course i feel bad. but i have been through what, sixteen years of therapy now? something like that. hasnt really made much difference that i can see. almost three years of dealing with did, and i still feel crappy any time i show up. ok, sure, other parts dont. great for them. still sucks when im out. i still want anything that will stop the pain, and i figure its a two in three chance that being dead would be less painful than where i am now. i dont know the chances of feeling better while im still alive but im not feeling hopeful about it.

but right now im not going to do anything about it. i wish i could just will myself dead but that doesnt work. i guess if it did i would have done it when i was a baby.

i remember when i was in 8th grade, writing a paper for science class. one of the first times that was probably good evidence for me switching, because apparently this paper had been talked about every day for more than a month, but i found out about it the day before it was due. but thats not the point of what im writing about. i was reading something or other, in some book. it talked about how babies who arent taken care of, who dont get nurtured, will just fail to thrive. they will die, even if theyre getting fed. probably worse if they are getting hurt along with that, i bet. but i guess there was just enough nurturing, or something, to keep me alive. enough of whatever it was that i managed to learn how to switch and dissociate rather than just giving up and dying. i guess there was a part who managed to get some kind of nurturing. that wasnt me. i can feel a direct line back to that other baby, the one who learned when it was tiny to stop noticing how it felt because if you notice how youre feeling then you are going to cry and then you get hit. so you cant need to be hugged or have your diaper changed or get fed regularly. you have to just figure out how not to need any of that.

or maybe its the baby who was not ok with that who felt hurt and sad and angry and all the things youd feel if your needs werent getting met. i dont know. its not exactly like i am that baby, just that baby is like... an earlier version or something. i dont know. but its there. its there in that place where i am, where petra and terra usually are. maybe another one. and now im not completely sure who i am. why is that baby with us? why are we so tangled up together? i know that at least petra and terra want to be like the other parts, more ok, more relaxed, stuff like that. they dont want to keep being tangled up with me. i dont really want them tangled up with me. but that keeps happening.

i dont know what im writing about or even why im writing. theres a part of me thats getting really mad that im doing it and now i dont even know who i am.