It’s normal to feel alone, but I am here to tell you that you are not. Growing up, I always felt like I had no friends and no support. I never knew who I could talk to or what I could do to get myself out of the depressed state I was in. For a while, I thought that was how I was going to live forever and that was how life was meant to be. I never went out of my way to get help or pull myself out of the situation I was in. About 8 months ago, I decided that this wasn’t how I wanted to live my life. I knew I needed to do something to change how I was living because it wasn’t going to change on its own.
Right now, I am finishing up my freshman year of college. I’ve heard that college years are supposed to be the best years of your life, so I was super excited for this new phase of my life. Once I got to college, I was still feeling alone. I realized that there were certain people in my life who probably shouldn’t have been, but I struggled to cut them off. When I finally decided that I wanted to change my life for the better, I started taking better care of myself and got rid of all of the negative people in my life. Once I did this, I already started feeling more energized and like myself. I finally felt like how college is supposed to feel. After this, I was able to grow closer to the people who made me happy and grew the best friendships. I finally felt like I had a group of people who I could talk to about anything and everything. This is the energy I needed in my life.
For a long time, I never felt like I could tell anyone how I felt. I bottled up my feelings which caused me to drown in my emotions. I never knew how to deal with them, but once I started opening up to those around me and told everyone what I was going through, I slowly started getting mentally healthy. I became more confident in myself and I figured out that opening up is what I needed in my life to improve myself and finally feel like I was living life.
I know that speaking about mental health is easier said than done. It is a slow process. It wasn’t an overnight thing for me, but it was something that needed to be done. My advice to you is to let go of the negative people in your life—no matter who they are—and you need to create a strong, reliable support system of great friends and family who will be there for anything you need. Being trapped is a normal feeling to feel, especially when you’re young and still figuring out how to deal with what you’re feeling, but it doesn’t have to define your life! Get out there and put the positive energy back in your life.