Member-only story
MENTAL/EMOTIONAL HEALTH
Can “Longing” Make Us Crazy, Or Worse?
On not wanting to want
Author’s note: The following piece originally appeared in my Substack, Sherry Raw.
As I get older, my mind takes me to places I thought I’d forgotten. Or, were buried so deep in the recesses of my brain, it would take a shot of sodium pentothal to recover them.
I’m happy to revisit many of these resurrected recollections as they remind me of who I was and what I was capable of at various times in my life.
Then, more often than not these days, my psyche takes a twisted turn and slams me upside the head with a reminder that, somehow, I’ve let myself down because I still long. I still want to taste, smell, and experience “things” that, due to timing, a lack of planning, or one of the Universe’s many bad jokes, will remain wraiths that will taunt me until my last breath.
Longings. Yearnings. Whatever name we choose, these unrequited, unsatisfied desires can lead us down paths we never imagined we’d traverse and if we don’t get a handle on them, make us fucking crazy.
Let’s be clear. I’m not talking about a yen. Not a “Damn, I could really use a Filet-O-Fish, right now.”
