I Live With My Parents Now. SOS

Raise your hand if you’re in your mid-late twenties and had move to back in with your parents due to COVID! Isn’t it fun? *cue nervous laughter*

I was placed on furlough for about 6 months, from my marketing job. By the time my job had decided to take me back, my apartment lease was ending and I had already decided to be a smart, mature, independent adult, and move back in with my parents.

My family consists of 7 kids, and when my parents had an empty nest for 4 months, I decided to roll up with cat and belongs, to fuck shit up. I’ve been here for 6 months now, and if things fall into place, I’ll be out by May! Just in time for hot girl summer.

The thought to move back came easier than the actual decision to do so. I remember one night being so upset because I was uncertain about my job and lonely because I was away from family and friends. The next morning I texted my dad saying I wanted to move back to Long Island. Shortly after my mom came up with a plan for me to move back in with them (I know, she’s obsessed with me). Then I blinked and the movers were at my door ready to bring my things home.

Okay it necessarily wasn’t all done in a blink of an eye, and my parents didn’t just magically coordinate the move. It consisted of about 2 weeks of research and phone calls to moving companies, trying to get the lowest price. It was packaging everything I had in my nice studio apartment, which was a lot because your girl has a home decor addiction. I had about 3 weeks to get out of my apartment, and as the moving date came closer, my depression slowly started to creep up on me.

I don’t consider myself a depressed person. I have terrible anxiety, and overthink almost every situation, but for the most part I’m a pretty positive person. I have specific goals for myself and where I want to be, so going back to live at home was a huge disappointment. At first my parents tried to be as loving and normal as possible. Then came the time to evaluate my life and to have serious discussions about my career and financials. Those conversations were rough, but ultimately I have a stronger savings account from it.

In the last 6 months I’ve seen myself regressing back to my high school/ college self; my parents have food ready for me, I don’t go grocery shopping, I have the same schedule I did back then, and I’m back in my childhood bedroom. I didn’t think this would be that bad, considering I didn’t think I would be staying here for this long. But with the disappointment of moving back, my toxic work environment, and cabin fever, my anxiety attacks have become more frequent. I find it’s hard to hold any sort of motivation to do anything other than work and sleep. In fact, it took me 10 days after my last post to come back here and write.

How do I deal with this? Knowing it isn’t forever helps, but distracting myself works best. I turn to podcasts and music to stop myself from thinking about the disappointment I’m feeling. And as weird as it may sound, I’ve dived further into content from Barstool Sports. I’ve followed some pretty cool creators on Twitter that are open about their mental health journey, and some that just provide comic relief. I’ve started looking into therapy (which everyone should do). It’s extremely difficult to find an available therapist nowadays, but it’ll happen eventually.

So if you’re in the same boat I am, just know you aren’t alone, and remember this isn’t forever.

Thanks for being here! (On this blog, and this planet)