BURDENS

The first impression  from hearing the word ‘burden’ is that it has to do with hardship, or that it is related to something overwhelming, baggage that’s weighing down on someone or something. Do you sometimes think that you’re a burden? That you’re some sort of baggage that the people in your life are doomed to bear? Or maybe, even better question, are you constantly afraid of being a burden perhaps to an extent that you’re willing to do whatever it takes to escape the guilt of being anyone else’s ‘baggage’ but yours?
The fear of being a burden is another of many fears that springs from a place of insecurity; the fear of being something unwanted, something heavy that overwhelms someone else – the fear of being that thing that someone else badly wants to put down. No one wants to be thing that suffocates someone else, but being stuck and shackled to your fear of being a burden drives you to certain extremes- extremes like keeping silent about your struggles and never seeking the help you so rightly deserve, it can even go as far as  believing that your existence is an overload on the people in your life–  and sadly, this is a story that seldom has a happy ending, precisely because suffering alone doesn’t suffice as a remedy to whatever you’re going through, but rather it only adds fuel to the fire that’s consuming you.

It’s hard to believe that you’re loved or that you’re any worthy of love when you’re having moments of weakness , hence it gets even more challenging to ask for help. Particularly, those moments when you feel like all your deep buried flaws are appearing on the surface, whatever you touch you destroy and everything is falling out of place — moments when you can hardly love yourself at all because it feels like you’re  the very epitome of  adversity. The intensity of the situation makes it  even  harder to believe that anyone would be willing to sit with you through times when you’re nothing but a raging storm, but if there’s anything harder than seeking help, it is not seeking help at all. It takes a great deal of courage to overcome the harrowing fear of being perceived as a burden — climbing over the mountain of fear that you built out of thoughts like; “what if i’m being a burden?” “I’m an inconvenience,  aren’t i?” will take a lot of bravery, but oh, isn’t it beautiful on the other side? Imagine that sigh of relief when you share what’s bothering you with someone else and finally get that weight off your chest or even the mere peace you’re guaranteed to find in working through the tangled mess in your head with someone else’s help.

Reaching out and asking for support doesn’t make you a burden, it makes you a fighter for the wellness of your mental health, it makes you someone who seeks to be a better version of yourself and if anyone ever made you feel otherwise, they were wrong! YOU’RE NOT A BURDEN!

~LEONINKSMITTEN