As many of you know, May is Mental Health Awareness Month, and I feel it would be a shame not to talk about it again this year. I’ve talked about my own experiences with mental health plenty of times since I’ve started this blog, but it’s an important topic, and one that I think is more than okay to repeat from time to time.
Also, as I’m sure frequent readers of my blog have noticed, these last couple of months have been particularly difficult for me. Even though I shouldn’t have to, I do apologize for the at times depressing nature of my writing. I try to use my blog to write about real life and when I’m consumed by sad thoughts, it’s hard to write about something that isn’t sad.
While I feel a little bad about that, at the same time, I’ve had more than one person reach out to me and tell me that some of my recent blogs feel like they are speaking directly to them, and they can relate to similar feelings. It’s been nice to kind of talk those feelings out, and while it doesn’t make everything 100% better, it does help – and I hope it’s helped them too. It reminds me that no matter what’s going on, I’m not alone.
About a month and a half ago, I was not doing well at all. There was a pile of things that kept bunching up on top of each other and I finally tipped over the edge. I cried every day for probably two weeks. I tried my best to hold it together in public because I knew if someone asked me if I was okay, I’d just fall apart – and nobody needed that. For a hot minute, I seriously considered going back to therapy. Anything to make me feel better.
Eventually though, it started to get better again. Like I said, I talked out my feelings with a few friends, and Dan and I talked about it a lot too, and it helped. It was like our own version of therapy. I spent more time journaling and getting all my thoughts out on paper. And of course, I spent a lot of time doing some hard workouts to get out the frustration. Mentally, I’m in a much better state than I was a month ago.
Nobody expects you to keep it together all the time. Even the happiest of people have hard days where it feels like the world is ending. Unfortunately, that’s part of life, and everyone goes through it. But it’s how you fight through those hard days that can make or break you.
It would have been really easy for me to curl up in a ball, completely shut down and wallow in my own little pity party. As much as I wanted to shut out everyone around me and let myself do just that, I knew I couldn’t. The world keeps moving on with or without me, and I knew if I allowed myself to be consumed by the sadness that it would eventually start affecting my job, my relationships, my marriage, and so on.
I allowed myself to feel sad – I’m not saying we shouldn’t do that. Allow yourself to be sad for a while, and then do whatever it is you need to do to be okay again. Whether it is going to therapy, journaling, exercising, talking to friends, anxiety meds, whatever it takes. Our mental health is something that needs checking in on every now again, just like our physical health. And if you need to see someone or take something for it, that’s okay. You wouldn’t think twice to take cold medicine if you had a cold. If you need something to help your mental well-being – even if it’s temporary – there shouldn’t be any shame in that either.
As always, I’m here to be someone to talk to if needed! Take care of yourselves, everyone. 🙂
Until next time! 🙂
Megan Nelson