The Soft Storm

  We live in a world that applauds the act of pretending. We smile, nod, and carry on, even when our hearts feel like they’re running on fumes. “I’m fine,” we say, even when fine is the farthest thing from the truth. Somewhere along the line, vulnerability became inconvenient, and admitting struggle became a weakness. And slowly, quietly, this culture of pretending is breaking us. It starts with small lies we tell ourselves. A text left unread because we don’t want to explain our exhaustion. A laugh we force when inside, we’re unraveling. The pressure is everywhere—family, work, social media. We’ve been trained to keep moving, to stay available, to deliver on dreams while our own emotional tanks are empty. And the ones who speak up often face judgment: weak, overreacting, dramatic. But here’s the truth: the human mind and body were never meant to endure this constant mask. Pretending to be okay demands a kind of energy that isn’t renewable. You start to feel a deep exhaustion t...

Maybe if I put my legs on the wall, it would help. Maybe curling into a fetal position would do the trick. But nothing works. I’m sweating, I’m shivering — I feel like I accidentally took a drug I didn’t know I took. Like I astral-projected, but I still have to command my body. My legs drag when I walk. My eyes close on their own, too tired to stay open. My skin feels wrong — I want to tear it off. I feel restricted. I want to sleep, but I can’t: too many vivid dreams. I need help. I just took a pill prescribed by my doctor. Why does my body react like this? My legs kick and twitch on their own. My jaw drops, and I can’t always close my mouth in time — saliva slips out. Do I look like a freak in public? My eyes want to close again. It’s hard to move. It’s been three weeks since I started Aripitas 10 (Aripiprazole) . I had been on Nexito 10 (Escitalopram) for a while before that, and it helped steadily, slowly, but Aripitas changed everything overnight.   The Beginning: How...

We throw around the term emotional exhaustion a lot, but what does it really mean? According to Healthline , it’s a state of feeling emotionally worn out and drained due to accumulated stress from work, personal life, or both. Our generation carries a tiredness that sleep can’t fix — a deep, soul-level exhaustion. And the wild part? It’s not just “life being hard.” It’s culture, psychology, and expectations we never asked for. We were raised to grind, impress, and produce until empty, staying available even when there’s nothing left to give. Complain, and suddenly you’re weak, ungrateful, or overreacting. Psychologically, our brains weren’t built to process this much stress. We juggle survival, ambition, trauma, instability, loneliness, identity, mental health, financial pressure, comparison, disappointment — all while pretending to be okay. Eventually, the system overloads. I’ve lived this. Days when my spirit felt empty, my mind floating elsewhere while my body just existed. S...

‎We all want better lives — healthier habits, stable routines, love that doesn’t burn us alive, opportunities that make us proud. And yet… somehow… we keep tripping ourselves right before the finish line. ‎We ghost people who care. ‎We procrastinate things we prayed for. ‎We reject help. ‎We overthink our blessings. ‎We talk ourselves out of good things like it’s a sport. ‎Truth is? ‎Self-sabotage isn’t madness. It’s survival. A twisted little dance between fear, history, and the stories the mind repeats until they feel like truth. ‎Most of us aren’t afraid of failure — we’re afraid of what success might demand from us. ‎Because success means responsibility. ‎Visibility. ‎Change. ‎And change comes with risk. ‎So we stay where it’s familiar. ‎Even when it hurts. ‎ Where self-sabotage comes from ‎ Most self-sabotaging habits come from something deeper than laziness or lack of discipline. They’re protective mechanisms built during moments when you didn’t feel safe, supported, or seen. ‎ ‎...

Depression. Bipolar disorder. Suicide. These are just some of the struggles increasingly attributed to the younger generation. Some have access to therapy and medications, while others aren’t in any form of treatment but desperately need it. I can relate. As an intern, I’ve been watching my contract ticking down, feeling the weight of uncertainty about what comes next. The thought of stepping into the unknown, unsure if I’ll find another opportunity, gnaws at my confidence. Job insecurity isn’t just a line on a contract—it’s a mental burden, and it’s real. It’s one of the many ways poor mental health manifests in young people. Here are some major factors contributing to these struggles, and ways to navigate them: Age and Generational Pressure Young people today—roughly 15–29—are navigating identity, independence, and emotional development simultaneously. With so many expectations and pressures, it’s easy to feel stretched thin and exhausted. To manage this, it helps to create sma...

  Is it your job , your family or lack thereof, your slow progress compared to your family or friends? There are a lot of things that make us feel like our lives came to a screeching halt and nothing we are doing is helping move it along. A couple of weeks ago, I saw my beautiful five year old nephew drawing a hut. A basic drawing right? Hold that thought. It was such an intricate drawing (for a five year old). I was so proud but the moment was cut short by a thought, a whisper from the deepest pits of hell! “What is your talent?” Immediately I realized that I don’t have a clue. Is there anything I could say that I can do without practicing it as a skill? Heck! I even take sleeping pills for a 5 hour tops, disturbed sleep. I truly have never felt so sad in my life . Sure, I know how to write, after all, I studied writing for four years in campus so that is a skill I have honed. When I say that that is just an example of times where things, tiny things have made me feel so behi...

Some people prefer the camera, some the mirror, and some — neither. The truth is, we all have certain mediums that make us feel pretty or handsome. Some people are so in tune with their beauty that they don’t need a mirror or a photo to know they look good. And those are often the ones who walk around with an effortless aura — the kind we admire and aspire to. But let me call a spade a spade, not a big spoon — I wasn’t one of them. Sure, I get told I’m beautiful from time to time, but when I look at myself, I just don’t see it. I didn’t find myself attractive. Maybe occasionally in the mirror… but only if I didn’t stare too long. If I did, the insecurities would crawl out and start screaming. I know I’m not alone. A lot of people feel the same — some love how they look in the mirror but hate every camera angle, while others are okay with the back camera but not the front. And some, like me, avoid them all.  That’s okay. If anything, welcome home.   No, No! I’m not here t...

Some people say they’re introverts, others claim shyness. But half the time, those are just soft shields we hide behind when the moment demands that we step forward and be seen. And here’s the truth: these things aren’t mutually exclusive. You can be a confident introvert. You can be shy and still move with quiet certainty. Confidence isn’t a rare genetic upgrade reserved for the chosen. It’s not a personality preset encoded at birth. It’s a skill — something you build the way you’d build muscle: repetition, awareness, and just enough healthy delusion to tip the scale in your favor. Your mind has a habit of clinging to old stories. Even when they’re outdated. Even when they’re lies. And the most common story people get stuck replaying is: “ I’m not enough .” A song that refuses to end. A story that bends your posture and drains your self-esteem until your confidence starts to crumble. So… how do you rewrite that script? How do you reprogram a brain that’s been feeding you Ls for years?...

‎If you look up the word personality in the English dictionary, it means “A set of non-physical psychological and social qualities that make one person distinct from another.” ‎Pretty straightforward if you ask me. ‎It’s a set of qualities that are unique to each and every one of us. Sure, some can be shared by multiple people, but at the end of the day, they define each and every one of us. ‎And here’s the thing nobody tells you: Your personality isn’t a fixed tattoo on your soul. ‎It’s more like your hairstyle—cute today, confusing tomorrow, and sometimes in need of a full-on dramatic rebrand because life is unhinged and so are you. ‎There comes a point where you sit with yourself and go,‎“Okay, this version of me isn’t working anymore.” Maybe you’re too drained, too quiet, too loud, too everything. Maybe you’re tired of reacting the same way, choosing the same people, accepting the same nonsense. ‎Maybe you’re done with the “old you” that was born out of survival, fear, or routine. ...

‎I t could be the waking up, or is it the commute? Yes! transport is abysmal. Your colleagues, your boss; they are good as any other. What exactly is the main reason why you are coming to hate your job so much? Is it because you have to stay? Yeah? The lack of a say in something that is dictating the majority of your day, the lack of independence is what is making you so damn tired of that job. ‎You are exhausted and you don’t have any other choice but to wake up and get to your job. ‎Truth is, this is a development. You loved it, you loved it, well, as much as one would love a job, but it wasn’t this bad. You were productive, you didn’t check the watch a million times through the day, you didn’t celebrate overly much about the end of the day approaching. So what happened? ‎ That and how to combat these feelings is what we are going to be diving into in this blog ‎1. It might really suck. You were just in, say, a honeymoon phase of a new job and now that that is gone, the haze in your ...

  A nightclub would be much better because then, I get drunk. But No! That is just my brain at midnight when I need to be up the next day for work. I see doctors, perhaps not for this particular issue, but it came up. They may have called Fantasy Prone Personality or was it auditory hallucinations? I couldn't tell you if I tried, I was too happy having a name attached to this bane of my existence. You'd think I'd be used to it by now right? Seeing that I have lived with it since I was young but No! Maybe it is the nature of these thoughts and conversations. Dark; Oh so dark! And every time it does, the first thing I want to do is yell at myself. “Why can’t you just think normal thoughts? Why are you like this?” BOOM! You're in the trap. Your brain is a storm. A soft storm, sure, but a storm nonetheless. Yelling at it doesn’t calm it down—it just makes the rain louder.   What It Feels Like Some nights, it’s whispers. Tiny worries crawling under your s...