When it comes to mental health, it’s dangerous to bottle things up inside and not let them escape. Its honestly one of the worst things you could do. I used to never talk about my feelings and only would when everything got to be too much. I would cry and freak out over nothing because I had so much stress and emotions flying around me. Then when I would break down, it would be an explosion of emotions, and panic attacks.They would get so bad I’d be hospitalized, and that’s when I learned that I could not keep doing this. I hated feeling the way I did because I thought it showed that I was weak. But I realized it was only weak to ignore how I felt, and that I was strong for laying everything out on the table and dealing with it.
I started talking about my feelings and channeling them into anything and everything. It sounds crazy but I would even talk to myself; I’d talk to myself about what I was thinking, what was bothering me and what I should do about it. I would try to color, listen to music, whatever I could do to try and get my mind off of everything and cope with what was going on. These methods talked me out of panic attacks more times than I can count.
But what I learned the most from all of this is that it’s okay to break down. You can have them once or twice a week, or once a month. Regardless how many times, it is okay. I learned when you hold everything in it not only damages your mental health, but also your physical health. You lose sleep, eating habits go wild, your academics suffer and your thoughts will drive you crazy.
So have your break downs as often as you need, you are human and you’re not the only person that goes through it.