Does anyone else have a recurring metaphor/motif they find themselves using to express their misery?

[Nolan96]

It dawned on me that for me it's liquid, whatever that means.

These are the sorts of things I find myself thinking:
I feel slimy and dirty and like I can't wash myself clean
I feel like some kind of Lovecraftian amphibian-monster unwelcome in society
I feel like the air is thick and heavy and I can't breathe
I feel like I can't get to solid ground
I feel like I'm in a haze and I can't think straight
I feel phlegmatic and sickly
I feel stagnant
I feel like I'm simmering in bitterness and never come to a boil
I feel like I'm desperately trying to stay afloat
I feel like I'm drowning

I guess for me that's just the particular flavor of my misery.
Does anyone else find they have something like this?

 

[Bootleg Astolfo]

I usually just describe my life in general as being a cruel Monty Python skit.

 

[FuneralCry]

I see myself as being already dead but still breathing. I do not live but just exist.

 

[hungry_ghost]

"I feel like a caged animal".

Usually violent descriptors that describe my internal state of frenzy.

 

[dissociation_statio]

"I feel like I'm constantly burning"

 

[ncmxm]

I feel like I'm drowning

Same, this is the same metaphor I use the most

I also use the analogy of how sometimes when you try to save a drowning person, they'll just pull you underwater with them
So I use the metaphor of holding my hand and letting go of my hand

I feel slimy and dirty and like I can't wash myself clean
I feel like some kind of Lovecraftian amphibian-monster unwelcome in society
I feel like the air is thick and heavy and I can't breathe
I feel like I can't get to solid ground
I feel like I'm in a haze and I can't think straight
I feel like I'm desperately trying to stay afloat
I feel like I'm drowning

And these ones too

 

[Angst Filled Fuck Up]

In terms of my chronic fatigue and dissociation, I tell people I feel like I've just run a marathon and I'm standing on a rocking boat while a little tipsy. People have no idea how difficult things are when you feel this level of tired/out of it all the time. My legs pound. I'm off balance and brain fogged. Even just minor things require a mammoth effort. And yet I'm sure there are many who wonder why I'm not doing anything with my life despite me having told them my problems many times.

Invisible illnesses are the absolute worst.

 

[Heartaches]

An empty husk. I often feel like a machine who's just doing tasks given but has no real autonomy. My body is on earth, but my mind is somewhere else.

I also feel like there's little people living inside me and they're costantly fighting to take my body and do as they wish because they think it'll be the best decision for my future; I'm just the physical carrier between them and this world.​

 

[Dr Iron Arc]

I'm like that "two wolves" metaphor only instead of one being good while the other is evil, both of them are evil and they're constantly fighting each other so it doesn't matter which one I feed more. It's gotten so bad that the only way to stop this conflict is to kill them both.

 

[Ringo]

I'm just a capricious pet that, seeing its owner injured, did nothing, let her die, ate her and realizing what it had done when it was too late.

Yup, that curious behavior is an appropriate metaphor for me, pets eating the corpse of their owners.

 

[ColorlessTrees]

This is a thoughtful topic. Thank you.

My recurring thoughts and metaphors evoke violent imagery—I notably describe things as 'cutting deep', slicing, slitting, and sharp pains, open wounds, scars and fresh blood and such. I also drift toward suffocation, strangulation, heaviness, and gasping for air. It's subconscious for me, and it's just my observation of my own writings.

 

[...]

exhausted

 

[motel rooms]

Feverish.

 

[stellabelle]

Well, oh well. So be it.