Mental Health Awareness Month 2022
Hey everyone, it's been a crazy couple of weeks. I recently moved back from Florida for the summer and I can’t tell if it's a good or bad thing that my entire life fits in a Honda Civic. Either way it's a ton of work, but a good kind of work. The kind you get excited for and no matter how old I get or wherever life takes me I’ll always be excited to come home. I’m glad my schedule slowed down for a week or so, it couldn’t have come at a better time. More specifically, this month in general is a good time because May is mental health awareness month. Most of you know I’ve had my fair share of mental health issues throughout my life so I thought this would be a great time to dive deeper in mental health.
It’s not a secret that life is hard in unimaginable ways, but what is a secret is how many of us actually feel and handle the shit that life constantly throws at us. I can’t tell you how often I would go through life not talking to people about the real problems in my life that were bothering me. Keeping all that negativity bottled up inside continues to prevent you from actually healing. When the negativity continues to grow anxiety, depression, eating disorders etc. all creeps into our minds and destroys us from the inside out. I’m not saying it’s easy to open up and talk to our loved ones but the relief of pain and mental anguish you get from lifting life’s burdens off your shoulders is a powerful feeling. I use powerful because when you begin to not let the negativity of the world hold you down you feel like you have regained power over your life again. It took me a very long time to regain power over my life. There will be times when you are weak. There will be times when you lose hope. There will be times you want to give up, but don’t. Giving up is the easy way out. It took me a long time to realize that this process is just that, a process. Healing takes time, it takes patience and strength to continue on. this is not a one time battle, this is a continuous lifelong battle. I myself am still fighting that fight, but the difference is that I now have control. I know what to do when times are tough, I know what to do when I fall flat on my face. I’ve prepared myself for everything that life will throw at me and when you do that life wont knock you down again. At the end of the day we’ve all lost somebody, and we’ve all hit rock bottom. It’s about time we start looking out for one another and taking care one another because at the end of the day we are all we got.
Mental health deals with so much more than just depression, anxiety, eating disorders, PTSD all fall under that umbrella. No matter what we are struggling with, it's our job as humans to start looking after one another. Check in on your friends, be there for somebody who just needs a friend. Check on your happy friends because they are the ones who are usually hurting the most. Call a sibling you aren’t close to anymore. Nothing in life is guaranteed, everyday we spend on this planet is a gift. That gift is the most precious thing we could possibly have and we so often take it for granted. I’m grateful for the people that never lost hope in my life, they saved me. We have the power to save one another, it’s time we start.
If any of you feel like you can’t talk to a loved one or need a friend I am always available to listen day or night. Call or text day or night at 609-649-2838 or utilize the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 800-273-8255. No matter what we are never alone.
“If you don’t like this chapter, write a new one”