All Year Around...

May has been designated, assigned, and ordained mental health awareness month. Although, this isn't a simple topic to be highlighted for simply a month. Mental health has no sleep. It is constant. It surfaces, plays hide and seek, taunts, and doesn’t respond well to us trying to fake out of it. Mental health is something that should be taken seriously… always. Whether we are in the thick of it, in a moment of relapse, or if we are someone who is simply a bystander to someone who deals with mental health, we need to be aware and equipped. Mental health is not a new development and isn’t something pills or other remedies will magically cause to go away. It is something that both men and women need to own and actively work to try and overcome. I have struggled for years and when I first learned about it, I was afraid of it. I thought I was messed up, but now, thanks to others stepping out and highlighting this that so many of us live with, we can learn more and understand how to fight it. The more people who are willing to share their stories and stop hiding, thinking that keeping it in the dark will eliminate the situation, the more we will be able to lean on one another to fight and lift each other out of the black world that haunts us.

Personal Belief

I won’t dive into my personal story with depression and anxiety, that's not what this post is about, but I do want to re-highlight the importance of sharing our stories instead of hoping that keeping them locked up in our lock box will cause them to vanish or cause us to believe that if no one knows, we won’t be a burden. I know, especially with guys, it can be a challenge to expose those feelings. It can be a challenge to expose any form of “emotional weakness” despite emotions being hard enough. Emotions don’t care who they pray on; they pick on anyone and everyone, and feeling the need to hide it only compacts the pressure. Without exposure, the topic in question has less of a chance of becoming more of a highlighted field. It is scary to put ourselves out there. Showing no weakness, putting on a brave face, lying to ourselves, thinking we can handle it on our own, and ignoring it long enough just praying it will go away. Those thoughts will only get us so far. With those thoughts, we balance on a very thin edge of plummeting down or feeling stranded and alone until we decide to fight to see the light again. Telling someone how we feel, speaking to a counselor or even a support person, finding little tasks throughout our day that heighten our serotonin levels, and coming to terms with the fact that, if we are facing depression and anxiety, we can’t hide them in the back, but face them head on because it is a battle that, in all honesty, can be to the death. Somewhere around 50% of suicides in America are from people who are depressed. We live in a world where actions are taken before we have felt the embrace of a guiding and loving hand.

2 Sides

I was talking with someone recently about the canyon that is experienced between the two sides. Those who experience and live with mental struggles and those who don’t. Both sides of the coin are nearly impossible to understand the emotions behind each person's actions. For those who have never experienced the breath that depression breaths down our necks, it can be hard to relate and share a sympathetic emotion. For them, they are left seeing the person in front of them looping in and out of a world of day and night transformations. They try to keep up, but ultimately become tired of guessing which version of us they will be graced with. One moment they are themselves and the next day they carry gloom over them. They are hard to communicate with, laugh with, and feel the ease that comes with spending time with people we are familiar with. It causes those who don’t understand to close off, become frustrated, feel like they are being unfairly treated, and potentially cause them to resent the time they spend with the other individual. On the flip side, it feels as though we are alone in a room full of people. And when we spend time with those that we are closest to, we think we are a heavy burden on them, so we try to hide what we are feeling until we are left with them no longer asking and failing. We look to them for help but ultimately become exhausted trying to paint the picture of our side. We laugh at it and turn it into a joke so people feel more comfortable around us. Feeling exhausted yet unmotivated. We experience anxiety only for others to think we are overreacting. It feels like we live life through a dirty screen, fighting to clean it hoping it eventually becomes clear. Neither side of the coin will fully be able to comprehend the other, but we will continue to coexist with one another. The more we work on trying to see life from the perspective of the other, we will hopefully be able to lean on one another and eliminate the tension of miscommunication. I constantly talk with my sister, explaining my side and being infatuated with hers.

Daily Habits

Along with feeling understood during our mental health journey and sharing our side for not only those who haven’t experienced what so many of us do, but those who have. We are constantly finding moments throughout our day that builds us up. Serotonin for those who are unaware, is the chemical in our body that helps control our basic systems like joy, sleep, hunger, and memory. Boosting our serotonin levels when we feel our life looking bleak can cause a rainbow to rise among the clouds. Little tasks like working out. Yes, we have all heard this before, but, I can attest, nothing kickstarts our levels like putting everything we have into a workout. When we push ourselves to complete a workout, we are left with our bodies feeling stronger, empowered, and accomplished. I can’t express how many workouts I have not wanted to do or cried through, but I have never regretted how I felt after. It is also a task that in a moment of feeling out of control, brings an element of control back. Getting out in the sun. Vitamin D people… I feel like I don’t need to say more on that topic other than if we don’t have access, I take a vitamin D supplement. Or there are vitamin D lights that also work and, like the supplements, are easy to find on Amazon. Watching how we eat, are we eating whole foods? Foods that help to build us up and support the growth and overall health of our physical body? It isn’t about eating well with body image in mind, it is about supporting the structure that God created to house the mind that we are working to heal. Along with that, water. Drinking lots of water helps our body function properly. A few others, going out and spending time in nature, taking our shoes off and going for a walk, getting a proper amount of sleep, finding those people who stay by us and lift us up, diving into hobbies that bring joy, talking with a counselor (something I started doing at the end of last year), and ultimately praying, reading our Bibles, and what I always do when I am feeling low, blasting worship music. Try one or try them all. I promise they won’t cause our mental health to worsen. They are all small steps in a more freeing direction.

Way Of The World

People may ask, why does God allow us to experience mental health issues? I hear you. It feels like a fair question to ask until we dive into it. We live in a fallen world as explained in the first book of the Bible. God created a perfect world that we humans have made bleak. We are now left to endure our actions and God is now able to be glorified through it. We need Him to pull us out, we face depression, not because it is from God, but because it is Him who will take our hand if we are willing to ask and show we need help. It takes humility to show our struggles. It takes strength to ask for help. And it takes courage to try to help others. All qualities are from God and are all qualities that help us to grow into better people. Beyond that, each task listed to improve our mental health are all things that highlight the detail that God showed while creating the earth and our human bodies. The fuel He created, the endorphins He placed, the earth that He spoke into creation, the human connection that He knew we needed, and a desiring heart that earnestly longs for a way out and a connection to Him. Although we may try to fight it and blame our depression and anxiety on Him and constantly ask “Why me?” and “If God was real why do I feel this way?”. God didn’t do this to us, but He will be the one to pull us out.

When we share our experiences we are looking past ourselves and looking to help others who are feeling lost. Mental health is a heavy burden to carry. And although it isn’t always easy for others to try on our shoes and to understand where our emotions circle down to, we won’t understand the weight that is to try and support someone who we have no basis on how to help. But, work from both sides and an overarching knowledge that our story isn’t finished with our battle, it is simply part of the plot to a greater outcome. If you struggle with mental health, know you are not alone. If you need someone to support you, feel free to message me, but reach out to a professional, a friend, or a loved one. And if ever you feel like giving up, please call 988 at any time. It may be highlighted in May, but it’s something we need to be focused on all year round. I hope you had an amazing week like always and as we go into the weekend don’t forget to subscribe, follow on Instagram, share, and leave a comment. This one was very long so thanks for sticking with it Allie-Cats.

• Dru Allie