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Mental Health: Currently onVacation...
Will get back to you when the noise in my head stops...
By Emma Moon
From our Winter/Spring Edition, (and blog), author Emma Moon vividly captures the universal experience of "Mom Burnout" with raw clarity and a touch of the indispensable sense of humor that we, as Moms, must always keep handy as a matter of survival.
Do you know that feeling when you wake up already exhausted?
No, you didn’t do anything. You just lived inside your own brain, which feels like carrying a backpack full of bricks that someone occasionally sets on fire.
I’m not even sure anymore if I’m tired, anxious, introverted, mentally ill, or just... the Balkan version of a 2025 mother. In any case — it’s not something I’d put on my CV.
Sometimes I think: “Maybe I should seek professional help.”
“
"I turn around and he is face down on the (wooden) floor.
There is a pause of silence as I run to him.
Then...”Ahhhhhhhhhhh!” Screaming, like I’ve never heard
before coming out of him.
But then I wonder — what would I even tell a therapist?"
“Hello, I’m here because I don’t know if I’m crying because I’m sad, overtired, or because something just hasn’t emotionally landed yet. I feel like a toddler about to throw a tantrum.”
My emotional range goes from “I feel everything too much” to “Who am I and why can’t I move?”
The last thing I felt was disappointment when I sat on the bed and remembered I hadn’t turned on the washing machine.
I didn’t turn it on. I just sent a telepathic message and whispered, “God, take me.” (He didn’t.)
People say, “Find time for yourself.”
Where exactly? In the sock drawer? In the freezer next to the frozen pizza?
Then I find my phone in the oven — the one I lost three hours ago — and remember I didn’t finish cleaning it because I got interrupted wiping someone’s butt, cleaning up a mini flood, and Googling how much caffeine I can consume before my heart says“nope.”
I don’t even know anymore when I’m lying, when I’m pretending to be a stable human being.
All I know is I laugh when I’m stressed, and I cry when someone says, “How are you?”
CONCLUSION:
My mental health is currently taking a break.
I sent it on a wellness retreat in Switzerland while I’m here patching up reality with coffee and sarcasm.
So if you see me staring into space — don’t call 911.
I’m just waiting for a wave of nameless thoughts (or possibly PMS) to pass.