So I’ve wanted to write this column for a while but things kept popping up and I’d get sidetracked and go off the rails about something else.
Well, I guess I finally found time to sit down and put my thoughts together for it.
Mental health has always been a concern of mine. I think I’m a product of the “Columbine incident”. Prior to that I’m not sure I ever really gave thought to mental health or that it could cause so much heartbreak. I also grew up in a small country church where the congregation repeated “Give your problems to God.”
Well, that is true. God can solve all of our problems, but He expects us to use common sense about them too. If I wake up and my car tire is flat before work, I don’t just pray “Hey God can you spare some air, here?”
No, I still have to manually put in the work to do it, but yeah, God didn’t just suck up all the air and not allow it into my tire. He just provided a fully functional ecosystem that supported the succesful transition of carbon molecules to oxygen molecules and vice versa. (But that’s another column.)
How can we talk about these issues so casually, but there is still such a stigma surrounding mental health? If we know a coworker has a bad heart, do we fear them? Is there an element of misjudging them because of the “Columbine effect”?
Look there are many, many different aspects of mental health. Everyone on this earth has been affected by trauma of some sort.
The old way of looking at it was to “be strong”, “don’t cry about it,” “emotions are weaknesses”. And boy oh boy did we do that in the south to our boys and expect emotionally healthy men to miraculous develop.
Well, here’s the truth. In the United States it is estimated that 23.08% or nearly 60 million people experienced a mental illness in the past year. Globally, this number skyrockets to one billion people having a mental illness. Well, that is hardly a number to wag a finger at. One billion??? Wow. Maybe we aren’t as unique as we’d like to believe. But let’s differentiate something here.
Everyone has mental health. It is literally the same as everyone has bone health, liver health or lung health.
When we get a cold this season because the weather keeps playing tricks on us with the temperature, we go ahead and stuff tissues in our pockets to prepare to wipe snot away from our nose if it drips.
When we wake up and feel our knees or joints aching from the cold, we know it is “Old Arthur” (arthritis) paying us a visit and we grab the extra strength tylenol.
If we break a bone from falling down, we get an x-ray.
But we still make having anxiety, depression, schizophrenia, obsessive-compulsive disorders a taboo thing to talk about. It’s hard for people to admit to others they are battling it. In the back of our minds, we think we are failing for dealing with it.
Brother, Sister, Friend! I have anxiety and stress. I’ve had it my whole life. Over the years, I learned to deal and self treat in a variety of mentally unhealthy ways. Some times I’d ignore it- yeah that ended up working well for me.
Sometimes I’d just stay so busy that I didn’t have to think about it.
I prayed about it. I literally tried to pray for God to just take the panic away. Yup, there I was fetal positon on my bed and all I could do was beg that God would make it all go away.
I tried shopping to cope with it. I tried controlling dieting and developed an eating disorder due to it- oh buddy- that was a doozie and a lot of fun overcoming (sarcasm…extreme sarcasm).
I developed addictions to coffee, I mean I was suspectable to addictions for everything: television shows, books, tanning and tatoos (Oh and vacuuming-that one was actually kinda beneficial.)
Heck! I even tried pot a few times. I felt like a such a rebel on that one. I was being so “risqué”. Like what? Laid back little physics nerd trying dope at a college party!!! I tried it again after becoming a mom. Turns out, I’m one of those anxious people that pot doesn’t really relax me in the way it should. I had a problem with it making my arms feel slower. Something about having the slower reactions made me feel like I wasn’t in control of my body the way I should have been- in turn giving me more anxiety. CAB and gummies made me feel the same way.
SO I say all that to let you know you aren’t alone. Mental health doesn’t care about our race, age, socioeconomic backgrounds, genders or bank accounts. It doesn’t care anymore about those differences as cancer would.
No one is immune to mental illness so why don’t we start supporting one another the way we would if knew a friend broke an arm?
December is Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD) Awareness month. For many differences December hits with its shorter days and added pressures of a holiday season and we see mental illnesses peak. More people are susceptible to depression and anxiety.
I’ve been so blessed in my journey. I’ve had friends, family, doctors. therapists, coworkers and bosses, and God love me when I couldn’t love myself.
Sometimes it is still challenging for me. (Having a healthy sense of sarcasm and ability to laugh at yourself helps too.- “Like if you haven’t been in 72-hour psych hold, have you even lived?”
I struggle and keep moving forward because sometimes that is all we can do. I work closely with my doctors to find the meds to make it easier. Y’all some of the meds these days can sniper shot mental health illnesses. Got an issue for just nightmares containing pineapple?- There is a pill for that. I exaggerate to make the point of gone are the days of blanketing the market with lithium and LSD expecting positive results.
But of course we have the social media jackwads who sarcastically make flippant comments downgrading depression or anxiety. Look, it’s 2024, can we stop that now? Can we as a society stop making fun of “SAD” people?
The only real way to treat cancer is by getting the physical healthcare we need. This is true of mental illness too. While I’d encourage everyone to reach out to their doctor and medical healthcare provider, I’m here too. Sometimes that is all it takes. If we know we can talk to someone else or just sit in silence with someone.
If you are struggling with addiction, depression or anxiety, I’ve got firsthand tips on what NOT to do. I can be a listening ear, and you’ll get no judgement from me. But I know some great people to help offer better advise than me, and I’ll walk with you every step you want me to.
No matter what though, don’t give up. Each journey begins with a single step.
