It’s Not Easy by Jordan Smith
“The students were reminded by none other than Kermit the Frog that ‘It’s not easy being green.’ They were then asked to consider what about their lives is ‘not easy.’ The students’ essays on this topic were excellent. Here is an example.” Don Riesett, Writing Mentor & Teacher
It’s not easy being diagnosed with depression and anxiety at just 13 years old. I am currently 14 but I’m pretty sure I showed signs before I was actually diagnosed. It sucks to wake up some days having almost no energy for reasons I don’t know why. I had to get medication because I couldn’t sleep some nights. No matter how hard I tried my brain wouldn’t shut down for the night. Some people on social media think it’s quirky, cute, and aesthetic to have a mental illness. As some who experienced it firsthand, it’s neither of those things. The reason I don’t tell a lot of people about it is because they might think I’m pretending or lying to them.
Even little things like having small interactions with people or going to a new place has my brain spiraling and thinking of every possible situation where something could go wrong. My anxiety triggers my stress and then it goes off into a huge mess. When I’m upset I usually end up completely shutting down. I don’t say anything to anyone. Not even to a close friend.
People that don’t completely understand my situation might think that I’m rude because I space out a little. I’m mean because of my resting face. I don’t care about what they have to say because I don’t give an opinion. I’m overreacting because I have really strong feelings about something. I’m a poser or a pretender because I don’t explain my entire life story from start to finish about how I got diagnosed.
Explaining depression and anxiety in three words. It’s not easy. Your heart is about to beat out of your chest from a panic attack. Your brain is about to explode from overthinking. Your eyes are about to fall out from crying. Your hair is going gray from stress. Your throat tightens up from public speaking.
Most of the time it’s hard but I try really hard to not give up. I still have a lot of things to experience. These days life isn’t easy for 99% of the population. I’m still a work in progress.
Jordan Smith
9/27/24