The Differences

People tend to simply shrug mental health off like it’s nothing.  That’s not always the case.  Mental health is so much more than just a problem in one’s mind.  Mental health is a serious issue and has caused many people to end their own lives.  So many people suffer from these diseases that people are afraid to admit they have because they are afraid of what someone might say or do.  But what are these diseases in the first place?  What causes them?  And how can you possibly overcome them?  There are some people that suffer more than others and others who are simply going through a rough patch in their live.  Some people suffer severe problems that require them to be hospitalized for their own safety.  There are so many different types of mental health.  All of them require some sort of help.  There is grief, depression, anxiety, shame, frustration, stress, bipolar disorder, eating disorders, suicidal thoughts, obsessive compulsive disorder, traumatic events, schizophrenia, seasonal affective disorder, the list goes on and on.  And mental health doesn’t care if you are male, female, black, white, tall, short, fat, skinny, it affects us all.  And it affects us all in different ways because of our background.  We all have issues and those issues are unique to us.  No one of us is going through this life easily.  We all have problems and as time goes on we can’t handle what life has to throw at us all the time.  We all have those moments where we just need to take a break and recharge our internal batteries.  But how does one do that?  One way is to seek help from friends and family.  Another way is to seek help from a third party, a neutral party.  The biggest thing is to seek help from someone.  You are not alone.  Everybody is going through something at one point in their life.  People are always afraid to ask for help because of fear of what someone would say.  Anxiety has caused so many people to be afraid to ask for help because of some reason or other.

I have spent my time dealing with mental health struggling most of the time.  I was afraid to open up to anyone because they would tell me “it’s all in your head” or something along those lines.  So I bottled up my emotions and never talked to anyone about myself.  This was bad because, even though I wasn’t showing these emotions of pain, suffering, anger, confusion, they were all sitting there inside me.  Festering and boiling and waiting for me to just let the cap off the bottle to let it all out.  And I wish I had someone who would just pull me aside and say “hey, it’s going to be okay. It’s going to be okay.” Because that would have made all the difference in the world to me.  I spent most of my life thinking I was never good enough.  Never good enough for friends, for my family, for a relationship.  That is a major problem.  I have recently learned that I am enough.  But the road I went down was a dark road and one I don’t wish to repeat.

Not only have I personally dealt with some of these issues, but I have known people who have dealt or are dealing with similar or other issues.  It can be difficult to watch someone that you care about going through so much turmoil in their life and not be able to do anything.  But that’s not always the case.  There are some things that you can do to help alleviate the problem or problems they are dealing with. The best thing one can do for someone is to just listen.  That’s all you have to do.  You don’t have to do really anything else except be there and listen to them.  That’s all they really need at times is someone to just be there for them.  It can be scary thinking that you are going through all this alone.  But it doesn’t have to be.  I wish that I had someone who could just pull me aside and be like “It’s going to be okay” at times.  That would’ve made all the difference in the world to me.  That being said, now that I have overcome my struggles I try my hardest to be there for others.  Be that just by listening to they’re issues or problems or by making them laugh from time to time.  Laughter is something that can help someone in more ways than we think of.  It is good to laugh.  We love to be reminded that we still have something worth laughing about from time to time.