Mental Health, Part 2: Sanity and Financial Security

My Mental Health Four Years Ago

Remember that NBD accident from Mental Health, Part I? Yeah, it left me pretty screwed up mentally as well as physically. I did a great job of pretending I was okay for awhile, and the panic attacks and obsessive thoughts kept getting worse. I was a mess. And ironically, it took my therapist and I awhile to figure out that I was depressed. Turns out I was so good at faking normal by that point that even in my own head, depression was masked as extreme stress and exhaustion. But when we did finally put a name to that feeling of being constantly overwhelmed and unable to find a way out, things got a lot better. Why? Continue reading “Mental Health, Part 2: Sanity and Financial Security”

Simple Rituals and Throwing Out my Keurig

Senior year of college, I became the proud owner of a secondhand Keurig coffee maker (courtesy of my mother, who decided to upgrade). It was red and shiny and glorious. I was convinced that it would earn me eternal goodwill from my five roommates, which was something I definitely needed since I was always experimenting with cooking weird things in the kitchen and, if we’re being honest, cut corners when it was my turn to vacuum. But I barely used the coffee maker. Sure, I made the occasional cup, but when I really needed a caffeine boost, I much preferred an espresso drink at the college coffee shop (frugality wasn’t fully on my radar at that point…). I also typically needed that caffeine boost halfway through the day when I was on campus between classes, and I definitely didn’t have my shit together enough to make coffee that morning for later in the afternoon—I was lucky if I had a clean mug in the kitchen at all. So the Keurig sat under-utilized all year. When I graduated, I moved it with me, convinced that as a real-life adult, I’d need to up my coffee intake. I even bought a cute drawer to put underneath it and store the K-cups. But again, I barely used it. I didn’t particularly like the coffee when I did make it (I’ve never been a huge coffee drinker), and the machine had a habit of leaking water and under-filling my cup. So when I moved to a new apartment, I decided to get rid of the machine, and I gave the K-cup drawer to my mom. But in my new apartment, with the Keurig gone, a funny thing happened… Continue reading “Simple Rituals and Throwing Out my Keurig”