Hello lovelies! You may or may not know that Nat'l Suicide Prevention day just passed 4 days ago (Sep. 10) and I thought it would be really important to focus my very first blog post on mental illnesses and the importance of taking care of your mental health.
This is something I take very seriously and I can't stress enough how important it is! I've struggled with depression for almost four years and still do to this day. The medical terminology would be "a chemical imbalance" but how I describe it is depression isn't just being sad, it's not crying a lot or wearing all black. It's a disease that takes an emotional and physical toll on you. It's being unable to get out of bed because it physically feels like you can't, even just getting in the shower is a small feat. You're exhausted, and frustrated and you basically just give up. And honestly, it seems like nothing short of a miracle will get you to a place where you're stronger and happy. But as someone whose dealt with all of these issues I'm here to tell you it IS possible. Just like every illness out there there IS a cure, you just have to work hard to find it. Here a few simple lessons I picked up struggling with my illness.
1. Pinpoint your trigger
A trigger is basically something that sets off your depression, or causes you to be sad. The first step is really important because no matter what you're doing to try and help yourself, if you keep whatever's triggering your depression in your life, you're just counteracting all that hardwork. Now a trigger could be say, a friend who's really mean to you, or maybe staying in an abusive relationship. Now that you've figured that out it's time for the tough part: getting rid of your trigger. It's going to be hard, maybe even painful but in the long run it's better for your sanity and emotional wellness!
2. The "cure" isnt the same for everyone.
For some people working out helps them deal with their depression (endorphins are totally awesome though and you should try to incorporate this into a routine) for others it's God, going to church, or maybe painting. Basically find your cure. How do you do that? Simple! You try everything duh, silly. To have a true understanding of depression or even sadness you'd have to have been happy at some point right? Well think back to that time! What were little things that made you smile? Was it hanging out with friends, doodling, listening to music? Figure that out and then expand on it! For example, have a sleepover or buy a canvas and spend the day painting, buy a concert ticket to see your favorite band!
3. Don't be so hard on yourself (love yourself)
Personally in my endevor to get better, this was definitely the hardest part. I mean, what is there to love about myself? And anyway isn't it vain to compliment yourself? ..... WRONG. There is nothing vain or conceited about self-love!!!! Loving yourself is a basic need. And a definite important step in the road to recovery. I struggled with hating myself, hating my body image, and honestly just thinking I was a total waste of space. I still struggle to this day with body image issues but now I realize I have so many amazing qualities that I didn't even see because I stayed in that dark hole of depression, I didn't let myself explore my talents because they were too scary to me or I feared rejection. So what I'm saying is lose yourself in yourself. I know that doesn't make sense but let me explain, when I was working on self discovery a couple of months ago I deleted all of my social media (twitter, facebook, everything) and I spent that time without distraction discovering and honing my talents. It was one of the best things I could do for myself and I strongly recommend it!
4. Have a true and realistic understanding of happiness
True happiness isn't the universe doing everything in your favor, it's not a perfect life with no bumps in the road, it's not even always being happy. What true happiness is is life giving you ups and downs and you're strong enough to deal with it. You're in a place where you're able to cope with the downs that come with life because you're finally seeing the bigger picture and things were put in perspective for you, it's realizing yes there are going to be days where I'm too sad to get out of bed but life is beautiful and it has more to offer than those days, so I'm going to try again tomorrow. It's embracing life and abandoning fear and accepting that rejection is a definite possibility but I promise you it only gets better with age. Not because the world changes it's view of you or decides one day that "hey I didn't realize how amazing and smart and funny that person is I should kiss the ground they walk on." It's you changing your view of the world and seeing how amazing and smart and funny YOU are and understanding that you don't NEED people to kiss the ground you walk on because you love yourself and screw them if they don't like you because you love yourself enough for the both of you
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