Quote Originally Posted by zoom-zoom View Post
A friend of mine once told me that she deals with her depression as if she were in an airplane when the oxygen masks drop--her priority is to put the mask on herself, first, and then put the masks on her kids. If she doesn't make sure that she's OK, then she hasn't the capacity to make sure that anyone else is having their needs met.
I love that analogy. It makes complete and utter sense. If I don't get enough sleep or food, I can't be the best teacher to my students at school.

It feels so wonderful to allow myself to just slack off on rides and stuff. The other night I went for a ride with friends and dropped off the ride after the first loop and ended up kicking back with another friend listening to Thai pop music while waiting for the others.

Part of the whole change really came from getting rid of some people in my life who were constantly making me feel like I needed to prove my worth to them. It was hard because they were people I thought were supposed to be the ones who were the closest to me and it turns out, they didn't really care much and I wasted all that time trying to get them to approve of me. That and therapy. Good grief.