It’s Mental Health Awareness Month and you know what that means! Lots of posts on checking up on your strong friends, being kind to people, how therapy is important, and how meditation is great for your mental health 🙄
I’m not saying these posts and advice are necessarily bad… I just feel like these posts are kind of lazy, superficial and don’t take into consideration the ✨diversity✨ of mental health issues.
When people think of mental health issues, they usually think of the ‘acceptable’ kinds, like anxiety and depression. And with the rise of ‘social media therapy speak’ you might hear folks talk about how their friend was ‘toxic’, narcissistic or has an anxious attachment style 😵💫 Most times folks don’t consider the messier parts to managing your mental health — medication and its side-effects, finding support in friends and family, finding supportive healthcare professionals, debilitating symptoms, working or looking for a job while managing your mental health, the list goes on!
So this month I want to share my personal mental health journey with you. My mother would say I’m “airing out my dirty laundry” (if you have Caribbean boomer parents you know what I’m talkin about), but I want to share what I’ve experienced, what I’ve had to do to manage my mental health, and offer practical advice. The cheerful, warm, put-together person you see in front of you had to deal with a lot of shit to get to this place — and I’m still dealing with shit! My hope is that this series inspires you to think more deeply about mental health issues, and how you can proactively support others (and yourself!) who may be struggling.
My journey with my mental health is a long one (~30 years) so I’m gonna break these stories up into smaller pieces for easier digestion. I’m not sure how many issues there’d be but uh… Stick with me here lol. This series might be heavy emotionally 😅 but I’ll provide trigger/content warnings where applicable so you can scroll past or skip the issue entirely. (Trigger/content warnings are another thing people don’t regularly think about with mental health issues especially as it related to trauma 👀)
See you in the next issue~