Showing posts with label Mental Health. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Mental Health. Show all posts

Sunday, December 1, 2019

Breaking Generational Curses Series A: Part 1

    The progression of my life has forever seemed to hinge upon something. When I was young, it seemed to be upon my Dad's arrival from Dubai, where he used to work. My mother would wait for days, months, and years waiting for his arrival. He was always so caught up, so recklessly self-absorbed to the detriment of his own well-being. The entire home seemed to hinge upon his permission to go out, enjoy ourselves and just breathe. If daddy had a bad day, guess who was going to bear the brunt of it. Waiting on a Narcissist as a child can really wear you out emotionally, before you even develop your emotional repertoire.

    My entire childhood also depended upon the organization of family activities as according to my mom. Not once did she bother to notice my unique tendencies or cuts in nature. In fact, she often discouraged me from being my authentic self. Even to this day, all the stacks of notes and books I have in my room bother her. I know she not so secretly wished for a different me. It's not much that she doesn't know that the one thing I am most passionate about in the world is writing, it's just that she chooses to overlook it. It's an uncomfortable reality when your daughter finds refuge in dead people and dead trees more than her own family and people she is surrounded by. I can imagine her disdain at knowing I will never care about family functions, weddings or family gossip the way she did. She made her disdain known in terms of my looks, education, mannerisms, skin tone, dialect and way of relating to people. She always tried to whisk me into a more sophisticated me. She always wished for a more constrained and reserved me. Perhaps just like her mother did of her.

I can see the motivations behind it though. Through me, her youth is relived but in a more idealized manner. I don't have any blame or resentment against her for having this way of relating to me. A lot of women are guilty for doing so. We tend to project our unfulfilled fantasies of what would have made our lives better onto our kids. The way mothers do it to their daughters is interesting because it tends to hold generational trauma of certain sorts. There is also an unspoken resentment between Narcissistic Mothers and their Daughters. The competition that eats away at their bond silently. There is always a standard to be measured up to. The close you get to that level, the more the mother raises the bar. So that you're never good enough for her. It's nothing personal though; It's just she only feels safe when she's sitting up high in her ivory tower. It's the only way for her to feel superior. She'll never praise you for your accomplishments. In fact, they're not even up for discussion. In her eyes, the only accomplishments worth noting are her sacrifices.

      It's these traumas and projections that I want to take a deep dive into and explore as a way of not only offering insight to you guys, but also pave a way for deep, reflective, meaningful and productive healing for my damaged heart. As I head into middle-age, where God has blessed me with a new start, I have decided to decode and make sense of, what I carry as a result of, the family I am from for my damaged heart.



Breaking Generational Curse # 1: Narcissism

    This words sits with me uncomfortably because I never identified myself as a full-on Narcissist. Not until I lived long enough to see the damage my Narcissism was doing to my relationships, health and career.

    Narcissism is absolutely essential to Survival. Along with good boundaries and a strong effort on achieving self-sufficiency. However, Narcissism becomes Lethal when it means hurting the ones we love. Out of spite and pettiness. It's deadly when we use it to justify to us and the world why everyone should feel sorry for us. Narcissism is a trauma passed down in many families. The repercussions of it can be seen all over the Media; Kylie Jenner & Travis Scott's Breakup, An overall rise in Divorce Rates, The unabashed war between men and women and an ever present agenda to dehumanize both Genders.

Follow me on my journey to explore Narcissism from the lens of someone who identifies as one and how we can manage and soothe this condition, while continuing to move forward and live healthy lives full of connection, compassion and sentiment.





Tuesday, November 26, 2019

500 Days of Journaling: Day 19

    Work is bleeding over into everything else in my life.
No rest for the Wicked right?

There has to be something to come to the surface; I'm waiting for the next lightning bolt of inspiration & motivation to hit me. 
Am I waiting on a miracle?
I feel like I've been fighting my whole life and it's always been against my own self. 

My own Inner Demons. 
My own psychosis, verbal assaults on my own psyche & my hidden fears lurking in turkey brain waters, holding me back from living out my potential.


Monday, October 28, 2019

5 SureFire Ways To Beat Depression


Here's something you might want to look into before heading into Winter Wonderland.

I used to think I had Depression.
The Worst Kind.
The Depression that makes you want to lie in Fetal Position and cry for an hour, while almost being tempted by the idea to suck your own thumb.
The kind that makes you cancel plans, at the very last minute, and pray you don't lose your last two friends.
The kind that makes your crash mid-day and wakes you up in the middle of the night.
The kind that feels like an ache deep inside your sad bones.
The kind that makes you feel like you're floating on a raft in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean.
The kind that makes you kinda just wanna die.


That's the Depression I am talking about. Or at least I thought I did.
It turned out I didn't have depression. I just happened to be allergic to people.
Meaning I discovered I ranked high on Introversion in terms of my personality. Even though I grew up in a metropolitan, surrounded by people, I peaked my performance when I was alone.
My main talents are writing and editing. I was attached to the library by the hip since age 2. However, since I grew up in a culture and family that always favoured togetherness, to the point of never valuing an Independent Identity, my unmet needs resulted in a Depression that haunted me through most of my early 20s. When I finally realized my depression was caused by filling the role of a loud, nurturing extrovert to please the world, I also reached the conclusion that I did not have to be a slave to my depression.

The only way to stop being a Slave to Depression is to Stop Being a Slave to Society, Your Parents, Siblings, Extended Family, Spouses and the world at large.


Depression is rampant in the West. It is medically defined as "A Rite of Passage for people who grew up on the promises of Technology Solving All Their Problems and Parents Who Were Too Caught Up In Their Baby Boomer Hedonism To Pay Attention".
Depression is as collective as it is personal to each individual. Depression still remains largely a stigma in a society full of Superman and Superwomen Syndrome Individuals. By the time individuals get around to accepting it as an issue, it has usually wrecked tons of damage on their immune system, interpersonal relations and work prospects.

This doesn't have to be you!!!

I urge you to download and read the Infographic made by yours truly, regarding some practical ways you can overcome your Depression. I can't wait to hear about your wellness journey and the ways you are cultivating yourself as a priority, in your work and personal lives.




5 SureFire Ways To Beat Depression

Here's something you might want to look into before heading into Winter Wonderland. I used to think I had Depression. The Worst K...