{"id":10667,"date":"2026-05-05T11:20:02","date_gmt":"2026-05-05T15:20:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/vanessaboglio.com\/?p=10667"},"modified":"2026-05-31T21:04:07","modified_gmt":"2026-06-01T01:04:07","slug":"surviving","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vanessaboglio.com\/en\/surviving\/","title":{"rendered":"Surviving"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Yesterday was a day when, at the start of sessions with several patients, they answered me: \u201cSurviving.\u201d When a patient says they are \u201cjust surviving day to day\u201d in terms of mental health, they are generally describing a level of functioning with a significant emotional burden. Remember that a person holds multiple roles at once: child, parent, sibling, employee, professional, citizen, member of a church or a gym, among others. Of course, it can feel like you\u2019re dealing with a lot when several of these roles conflict and demand tasks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The person may be moving through their world automatically, not being present or enjoying the small achievements, details, or cues that exist. They intensely try to keep up with the basics (working, eating, and some responsibilities). This leads to emotional exhaustion, which is common in diagnoses such as depression, as well as in chronic stress and burnout.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Many of my patients and colleagues experience psychological overload \u2014 that feeling that life is heavy. The same feeling that makes planning difficult. Feeling like everything is urgent and you\u2019re running a thousand miles an hour.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">I wonder, when faced with those stressors, whether we ask ourselves: what is within our control? Many of the tasks we fail to complete are outside our control, yet we assign them to ourselves. The sense of control is reduced, and that, in turn, affects our perception of direction, goals, and priorities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In my patients\u2019 faces, I see emotional numbness. They are present but just barely: \u201cI do what I have to do, but I don\u2019t feel much.\u201d Can you imagine the mental and physical strength required to feel that way?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Clinical implications (important)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">That phrase invites exploration of:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Level\u00a0of\u00a0depression\u00a0or\u00a0anxiety<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Burnout<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Sleep,\u00a0appetite,\u00a0energy\u00a0\u2014\u00a0often\u00a0affected<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Passive\u00a0suicidal\u00a0ideation\u00a0(\u201cI\u00a0don\u2019t\u00a0want\u00a0to\u00a0be\u00a0here\u201d\u00a0vs.\u00a0\u201cI\u00a0want\u00a0to\u00a0disappear\u201d)<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Support\u00a0network\u00a0\u2014\u00a0does\u00a0one\u00a0exist?<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Daily\u00a0functioning<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Some useful questions to reflect on:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ol class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>What\u00a0does\u00a0\u201csurviving\u00a0day\u00a0to\u00a0day\u201d\u00a0mean\u00a0to\u00a0you?<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>What\u00a0things\u00a0are\u00a0you\u00a0managing\u00a0to\u00a0maintain\u00a0despite\u00a0feeling\u00a0this\u00a0way?<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>What\u00a0is\u00a0the\u00a0hardest\u00a0part\u00a0of\u00a0your\u00a0day\u00a0right\u00a0now?<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>When\u00a0did\u00a0you\u00a0start\u00a0feeling\u00a0this\u00a0way?<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>What\u00a0do\u00a0you\u00a0do\u00a0for\u00a0self-care?<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Exercise: Take a pause and think of pleasurable activities you could incorporate into your daily routine to reduce the sense of merely surviving. Some examples: relaxation or deep-breathing exercises, going for a walk, laughing, spending time with someone you trust, among others.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Yesterday was a day when, at the start of sessions with several patients, they answered me: \u201cSurviving.\u201d<\/p>","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":10663,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_kad_post_transparent":"","_kad_post_title":"","_kad_post_layout":"","_kad_post_sidebar_id":"","_kad_post_content_style":"","_kad_post_vertical_padding":"","_kad_post_feature":"","_kad_post_feature_position":"","_kad_post_header":false,"_kad_post_footer":false,"_kad_post_classname":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[97],"tags":[100],"class_list":["post-10667","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-depression","tag-en_us"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vanessaboglio.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10667","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vanessaboglio.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vanessaboglio.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vanessaboglio.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vanessaboglio.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10667"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/vanessaboglio.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10667\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11022,"href":"https:\/\/vanessaboglio.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10667\/revisions\/11022"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vanessaboglio.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10663"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vanessaboglio.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10667"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vanessaboglio.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10667"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vanessaboglio.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10667"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}