You Are Not Too Much — You’re Carrying A Lot

If you’re reading this, I want you to pause for just a moment.

Unclench your jaw.

Drop your shoulders.

Take one slow breath in—and let it out gently.

You don’t need to be strong here.

I know how easy it is to believe you’re “too much.” Too emotional. Too sensitive. Too intense. Too broken. Too complicated. Especially if you’ve spent your life being misunderstood, dismissed, or told that your pain makes other people uncomfortable.

But I need you to hear this clearly:

You are not too much.

You are someone who has been through a lot.

There is a difference.

When you’ve lived through trauma, your nervous system learns to protect you in ways that don’t always look pretty. When you live with mental illness, your brain processes the world differently—not wrong, just differently. When you’ve had to survive instead of being cared for, your reactions make sense, even if others don’t understand them yet.

Nothing about that makes you unlovable.

Healing is not a straight line. Some days you’ll feel calm and grounded, and other days you’ll feel like you’ve taken ten steps backward. That doesn’t mean you’re failing. That means you’re human. Growth includes rest. Recovery includes bad days. Progress includes moments where all you can do is stay.

You don’t need to have everything figured out to deserve kindness.

You don’t need to be “better” to be worthy of love.

You don’t need to explain your pain perfectly for it to be real.

If you are surviving today—even quietly—that counts.

And if you’re in a season where you’re finally safe but still struggling, please know this: it is normal for healing to feel harder than survival at first. When the danger ends, your body finally has space to feel. That doesn’t mean you’re getting worse. It means you’re finally allowed to process what you carried alone for so long.

You are allowed to need reassurance.

You are allowed to need patience.

You are allowed to need to be held, to cry, to rest, to ask for help.

Needing support does not make you weak. It means you’re choosing to stay.

There is a future version of you who will look back at this moment with so much tenderness. A version of you who will say, “I’m so proud of you for not giving up.” Even if you can’t see them yet, they exist. They are being built every time you choose to keep going—even on the days you don’t feel hopeful at all.

You matter. Your softness matters. Your effort matters. Your survival matters.

And if no one has told you today:

I’m glad you’re here.

I’m proud of you for making it this far.

You are doing better than you think.

Be gentle with yourself tonight. You’ve earned that much—and more.

— The Healing Chaos

“You don’t have to be healed to be worthy of love. You already are.”