Life is hard. Life is full of stress, and stresses of different levels. There is stress, there is overwhelmed, and then there is drowning. Each level of stress is completely different than the rest, but they all are based off the same thing.
Stress is a normal part of life, and everyone gets busy and everyone gets stressed about different aspects of their lives, emotional, physical, schedule, etc. Mild stress is okay. It helps us perform better, and keeps us moving. Sometimes we get a little too stressed out and we experience fatigue, usually after a long day of different kinds of stressed. Being overwhelmed can lead to exhaustion, mental or physical. These are the times where you start to get snappy with people, telling them you're sorry, you're just "really stressed out". Nothing a bath, a week or so, or a girl's night out can't fix.
Drowning...is different. When you're drowning, it is literally impossible for you to cry for help, because your body is trying to focus more on breathing itself. You can't wave your arms around, because your body is making you keep your arms pushing down on the water in order to stay alive.
When you're drowning, everything around you is pushing on you with unrelenting pressure. It feels like your bones might just snap, that your lungs are getting smaller and smaller and any moment now there's not going to be any room to hold air, your stomach is cramping and punching and trying to figure out what's happening, your heart is thumping so loud and harsh it may as well be bleeding into your chest, a noose is around your neck and every single second it is tightening itself tighter and tighter as you desperately flail to cling onto something but all you can grab is the heavy water that's all around you and
for a split second
everything is calm.
Everything is dark.
Everything is silent.
Everything is cold.
When you're drowning in a wide, vast, ocean,
nobody sees you suffering.
They see the blue sea and the sand.
They do not see the cold depths of the ocean or feel the pressure of the world upon their chest.
There are no hands to help you out.
There are no lifeboats coming to rescue you.
You are alone.
There is stress, and then there is drowning.
I am drowning.
