2.10.2010

You mean nothing to no one but that is nobody's fault.



"I had a lengthy discussion about The Power of Myth / With a post-modern author who didn't exist
In this fictitious world all reality twists / I was a hopeless romantic, now I'm just turning tricks"

In our last conversation she mentioned the word "empowerment" as a way to get through life
i had heard it and read it in all this therapy/recovery stuff. empowerment. It's like sometimes you skim
the words that can't apply..(which is why i always have to re-read.) It is an Action word. something you have to DO.
Move. Act. Change. Being really avoidant,...well its a problem. I'd almost rather be terrified, frozen, prepared and
ready to fight this imaginary THING. You can't see it and i almost always can't see it but I know it is there and I have to obsess and do all these THINGS to like starve, for instance, and count and place things and cover them (ocd what have you)
suddenly you drop all that and go join an Animal Rescue Program. And you are thinking that you neglecting a small dark world that
is SCREAMING and begging for you to return but you say NO. I am putting on normal clothes and brushing my teeth and going
to pay a bill. or sign up for a class. or join an acting troupe. or actually make a friend and hang out with them and drink tea and NOT
become codependent and twisty and obsessed with their past and present and soul and brain. I am being normal. this is normal. great. now i am obsessing about being normal.

So, you know, what better way to be empowered that to be an activist for this thing you are recovered FROM?
Well, you know what? It is really hard to be an activist for a condition that no one believes you have. or had.
it is really hard to be surrounded by people who say they love you but when you form words your mouth is just
numb bc you cant make words that covey the slightest accurate portrait of what is inside you.
so you draw it and you paint it and your parents can't bear too look bc the painting are painful and 
most of the time i don't even think my therapist believes me. Anxiety. i have anxiety and i have fear.
Oh. Sorry. I thought it was God. (i really did)

i don't understand how anyone can love me if they don't know me. and i don't feel known.
i don't want to die unknown, but then in another way i kinda do. just crawl up and disappear. go away as if i never was.
that kinda sounds okay sometimes. That last love, he said, "you cant leave me bc no one knows you but me"
and it sounds like some controlling bs but the thing is, he was right. It was true. So sometimes he called me crazy but sometimes he
said My god there is nothing wrong with you. he said it so much. i got angry. i stopped taking my medicine. i stopped all of it. i didn't tell anyone. after a few months my skull was a living torture chamber for my brain. I tried to tell him what was going on.
"ohmygod see this is the shit you don't need to say. to anyone. this is the shit that is gonna get you back in the hospital.and you need to stop it bc there is nothing wrong with you. i'm going to call your parents... do they know how you are"  
i got back on my meds eventually but, like, i think everyone just kinda thought i was lame for doing so. So after that i just you know shut most people out except for my few obsessions. and he moved on and all which is great bc he was an amazing human being even though the was, of course, not equipped  with the skills to handle what the hell ever ever was wrong with  me. (NOTHING)
i "recovered" i eat. i got a job. it has been years now, since i recovered from nothing.
 i look an my paintings and  cry. i am numb and no one knows who i am.


14 comments:

little bird said...

i'm just another ghost saying this, but i know what you mean. yeah, i am this particular person to everyone, just a shell of what people what to see, but underneath i am 'really alive.'
people don't want to deal with the troubles of other people because it opens up their own troubles and madness. its hard for people to see the suffering of others especially when they know and love you, it hurts them.
i suppose if it means anything, i believe in order to exist in the reality of 'the world of work, eating, and shopping' i have to become a person that can fit in. its just a paper doll cut out for them to pose and put clothes on. its as real as the paper you write on and erase. it can be changed for their needs.

however, you create and exist in your own reality. we all do without those paper dolls, or with them. i don't know yet.
i gave up sharing my 'reality' with people a long time ago because i knew they wouldn't understand how my brain works and functions.
so, i know what you mean.
i/we/all feel this way. stuck in someone else's reality that feels like a world within a world.

granted, i might be all wrong here. rattling on about nonsense.

ghost girl said...

thank you for sharing your rattling rambles with me.
I is SO hard to be the paper doll. especially when I got away withOUT doing it for so long. But if you can make yourself do it, yes, you kind of have to do it to survive.

the thing is though, i kind of disagree with you on one point. Im not so sure that everyone feels this way. I listen to people talk, and i have even asked people specifically - and it seems like some people are kind of on an even keel about it. Either they are "normal" or they just came to terms with. Maybe they are not aware. They say I think too much.

I know that there are people out there who DO feel similar to me, though. i forget bc i dont know many of them.

thank you for your comments.

Mimi Rankin Webb said...

i dont think ANY of us really truly are "known" as you call it...& everyone is too quick to label anyone who chooses to think or use their brain as "crazy" or abbynormal or whatever...insert fave term for it here...it all means the same thing & hurts regardless of delivery & the degree of person doing the delivery in our lives-
i'm soo tired of having to be "normal" when its blaringly glarinlgy obvious more & more each day that i simply am not & never will be what everyone else calls NORMAL...i have a hell of a time dealing with it & catch flack even in my supposed "safe" places where i think it might be okay to vent about it but am quick to find out that everyone takes offense at things having nothing to do with them in the first place-ie they are having a bad day so why not share it with those of us who know every day is less than stellar to begin with & at least we go about muddling thru them in the only ways we know how-do you think they get how difficult THEY are to deal with? how hard it is to take THEM & their mendacity? the mundanes...the normal folk who really can never see that nobody truly can ever shove themselves under the NORMAL heading...so they spend their time showering the rest of us with their comments, their advice, their signs o the cross so we dont infect them...did ya know that at work husband was told that he does the devils work because he doesnt believe in that person's god? my children are spawn of the devil officially- hell i knew that if i had em even 100 yrs ago (providing they survived & by some chance i did too which wouldnt have been too likely but it could have happened) that id have just been burnt at the stake & the babies done in as soon as they were born if even allowed their first breath-but doing the devils work? how freakin presumptuous is that??? its disgusting & i'm sorry i'm ranting & all i can think about is donna's frankenstein's monster monologue...okay bye

little bird said...

yeah, i suppose most people are 'normal' and find it easy to deal with daily things.
being normal is such a bore though and doesn't accomplish anything creative or interesting.
sure, having the job, the big house, kids, and an xbox is suppose to be the american dream, but i don't believe in that shit. lol

i am just happy to be able to exist and i hate it at the same time. its a chore, but i have to find something to live for even if it is just for the things i do. OR finding the answers to life, mainly through books and other people. i like to over analysis life experiences because thats all i have. choices made, emotions and the reasons behind it all. i don't have answers but just questions.

have you read 'siddhartha' by hermann hesse? its a great book about a ex-monk's journey through life and finding his own personal 'peace' its really a great read if you ever find it.

AVY said...

I know that feeling.

I Hate to Weight said...

how are you? i've been thinking about you.

i read this last post a while ago while on the road. i've still been thinking about it.

i think that one person doesn't often know all of us. different people understand different parts. by accepting that, life feels easier for me. my therapist understands so much, but there are parts of me that only my sister, who had the same mother, can get. my former colleague "gets" me careerwise. etc.

thinking this way makes me less sad and lonely. anyway, it's helped me.

Anonymous said...

i'm sure you mean something to someone out there!! we all do even if it is just our parents or friends.

Lou Lou said...

Hey, I am having to make my blog private in a few days as I want to continue blogging but something pretty shitty happened, I was going into treatment at a clinic, I have been in touch with the guy for a month now emails, calls and all kinds of things. My parents had been through the facility with him and sat with him for an hour discussing treatment plans and my history and my desperate need for help. i showed up yesterday after lunch like he said to, expecting to begin my treatment at the alcahol, dr*g and eating disorder clinic and stay for a month, mum and dad paid a lot of money, when we showed up nobody was there, it was a complete scam, he used to work there and it had stopped being operational a few weeks ago, it was deserted, unmarked and sickening. i really want to continue blogging. I just want to stay in touch with my blogsphere peoples whether they are anonymous or not, only thing is im turning boostforward to private cos i stupidly gave the guy my URL to show progress and history etc, I may have to change URL, untill this mess is figured out i have to do this. I am going to post this on peoples comments too. I am going to switch it to private in a few days. theres so much thats happened that i dont want to write just now while its public. please email me so i caninvite you to read my blog to my alias blogging email amanda.brunning@gmail.com ... not my name. if you aren't comfortable with that, i totally understand!
xx arohanui lou

Anonymous said...

Hi- I am a random lurker, I have been following your blog for awhile. I get a lot out of it and relate to you in many ways...I am so inspired by your artwork.
Anyways, you haven't posted awhile and I know you lost a dear friend. I just wanted to say that I hope you are doing okay and that things get easier soon. Sending Big Love.
Jessica

ghost girl said...

jessica - thank you so much. This comment means a lot.
s

Anonymous said...

how are things going? it seems like its been a while since your 'presence' online, and thats a bit worrying.

the wanderer [bernard] said...

i see youand i think you seeme.
keep being

ghost girl said...

thank you, wanderer!

Stina said...

First of all, your artwork is amazing. . .it's so real and I get so much just out of studying them. I suffer from bulimia and depression, and I know the game of taking meds, not taking meds. The most annoying phrase of all. . "Have you taken your medicine today?" I often like to twist and turn inside my own head and stare at the people around me, wondering why they are here. . how, after spending so much time with me, can they not know me? I feel your pain and frustration in you post and I have no advice, and nothing really interesting to say, except, your words and paintings help more people than you realize that they are not alone.

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