When You Feel As If You're Falling

Have you ever felt as if the weight of your challenges would finally cause you to crumble? Have you ever felt as if your body—indeed your soul—no longer had the strength or perhaps the will to go on? Have you ever felt as if your mind would finally come unglued because of stress, illness, or neurotic inner chatter?

I know that I’ve been in such places, and many times in my life I’ve had to dig deep to find the personal resolve to move forward. But no one moves forward alone. Whether by leaning on God, family, friends, or the ideas and feedback of thoughtful coaches, therapists, or even authors, we all occasionally need support to keep us from sinking into the abyss or simply staying on the sidelines.

We all need something and usually someone to hold us up, hold us tight, and nudge us forward toward our better future.

Support is defined as “a thing (or person) that bears the weight of something or keeps it upright.” So if you are someone who happens to be going through a bit of a challenging time right now, then I’ll ask you to think for a moment about the people, practices, faith, and ideas that you fall upon when hard times fall upon you. What or who immediately comes to mind?

And if nothing immediately comes to mind, where could you turn to find that necessary support?

 

When I was suffering through prescription drug withdrawal some years ago after quitting long-term Paxil and Xanax use, I was also going through a lot of other things: financial stresses, a lack of professional fulfillment, self-perception and self-esteem issues, and general confusion about where I was going in life.

During that period of time, I leaned heavily on family, God, and a variety of books and ideas. These things were my support. They, along with my hope and vision for a better future, held me up when I felt as if I were about to crumble into a pile of dust and blow into the ether.

During some of that tumultuous time, my wife and I lived with two of my brothers as well as one of her sisters in a large fraternity house we were rehabbing. Perhaps I’ll write more about the adventures of that house more in the future (and there were plenty), but for today I’ll simply recall how I used to wander into my second-youngest brother’s room almost nightly to settle onto his couch and talk at length about my illness and all of the things that were bothering me.

Yes, it was kind of like therapy, with me positioned on his couch beside his gas fireplace unburdening myself. And since he was often one step ahead of me in his spiritual and psychological readings and in his fitness and personal-improvement quests, he was a great source of support and feedback.

Our talks were often heavy, but often the time together was lighthearted and silly, too, and the mix of humor and headiness sometimes made me feel like we were the Crane boys from that award-winning show Frazier. Those late-night conversations with my brother will forever live in my heart as something that kept me moving forward when I might otherwise not have, and that support was invaluable to me (as was support from my wife and the rest of my family).

Fast forward a number of years, and I’m the one providing much-needed support to others through my coaching sessions, which often focus on helping people heal from prescription drug withdrawal involving antidepressant and benzodiazepine medications. In those sessions I listen, encourage, and offer thoughtful perspective and useful feedback to help others move forward on their own better-health journeys.

I strive to create a warm, welcoming environment that feels like the embodiment of the word “healing,” and I make sure to engage each person on an individual level, because although there are similarities in all of our stories and overlap in the paths we must take to get back up when knocked down, ultimately our personalities, our dreams, and our best futures are unique and must be approached as such.

We each have a success story that is waiting to be written (or in the process of being written). I truly believe that. So whenever you feel as if your story is stalled, please find something or someone to uplift you. Please find your encouragement and support so that you can keep the ink in the proverbial pen and continue moving forward with the next crucial chapters of your healing & growth journey.

Keep at, refuse to give up, and the story will ultimately be a successful one.

Until next time,

Michael