Paedantic Basterd |
04-16-2012 09:31 AM |
Alright, I will share with you a personal story, and try and make it quick because I've got to go to work.
I'm not going to share my life's story, but when I was a child I was raised by a single mother and my grandmother, and my mother more often than not didn't know how to say no to me as a result of her absences due to her working to support my existence. My grandmother, a woman of 70 years, did not have the strength or energy to play with a child, so I spent a lot of time indoors.
By high school age, I was overweight, because teenagers have no grasp of the consequences of drinking too much soda or not brushing their teeth, and a long term mistake is difficult to correct, particularly without the necessary knowledge. Then, depression. Graduating year my grandmother died, and four of my very good friends broke up with me, on top of trying to graduate and typical troubles that overwhelm high school students.
This depression continues off and on for three years, with a couple brief boughts of healthy living in between that did me a lot of necessary good. I know a lot of people here have struggled with depression and know how hard it is to get out of bed to go to work or class. Now imagine trying to get up and go for a run or hit the gym for a couple of hours. Didn't happen. I spent 11 or more hours sleeping every day.
Fortunately that passed, and in better spirits, motivation returned to do better with my life. Unfortunately, my mother fell ill with cancer, and this past summer while she received treatment out of town, I supported the household by working 7 days a week, well over 40 hours. I simply did not have the energy, physically or emotionally, to then work on myself during this period of time.
And so it seems I've gone to seed a bit, which I'm not happy about, but am slowly but surely working at. Certainly, various aspects of this story can be chalked up to my poor decisions, however not once in my life have accusations or generalizations motivated me to do anything. If anything, I lose interest in a person's advice when it is swaddled in judgment.
I am not a person who seeks sympathy or wishes to validate myself with excuses, and I believe that's been clear to anyone who has spoken to me over the year and a half I've posted here. What I've shared here are simply facts of my life, and they will continue to be factual whether or not I work to reverse their effects. The point I wish to make is simply that you can't put any human in a box, and a discussion on lifestyle that fails to take individuals into account is ultimately not worthwhile.
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