“Please chill.”
“Literally, why are you worried; nothing is going on.”
“Calm down, you’re freaking me out.”
Do you know how many times a day someone who suffers from depression or anxiety hears a phrase like this?
Well, if you didn’t, it’s a lot.
When a person’s chemical imbalance is thrown out of whack because of too much or too little of something such as serotonin, that’s when the mental disorder or lack of mental wellness terms come into play.
Let me stop right there.
Mental Disorder.
I hate that word; loathe it, even. Do you even know the stigma that comes along with having one of those? It means you’re crazy, you are a firecracker just waiting to explode, you’re unpredictable, and you are not stable enough to hold a job, a friendship, a relationship, and barely stable enough to go through life everyday without popping your top.
You have to take medicine. You take a pill to make sure your brain is functioning properly enough to sleep, to work, to wake up in the morning, and not dread the fact that you’re alive. And what happens when you can’t find the medication that works for you?
You are forced to go on a wild goose chase trying to find the one that’s right for you, dealing with the side effects of the wrong medications, having them effect your personality, while all at the same time, trying to maintain the image of a healthy, put together person.
You go to therapy and vocalize your feelings so that someone else can gauge what is going on in your mind because you can’t.
Is this a mental illness or is it everyday stress?
You have to think through everything; words, actions, thoughts- everything. Society labels you insane and you believe them.
I wish someone had told us we’re not.
I kept my mental health and the times my medicine wasn’t working for me a secret.
I kept quiet because I didn’t want to bump up my dosage, I didn’t want to hear what the general public had to say to me, and I really didn’t want to go through more side effects. Going off one medication and straight to another took an intense toll on my body. Migraines every minute of the day, sensitivity to all light, sensitivity in general, more apathy, less excitement, and the thought of food made me sick.
I no longer wanted to do the things I loved so much because what was the point? I hurt, but I was afraid that my physical and mental pain would be perceived as weakness instead of just another obstacle. I had no idea what was going on or how to fix it, so how or even why, would I vocalize my feelings when I couldn’t even understand them.
Nearly 1 out of every 5 Americans suffers from a mental illness and yet the words “anxiety, medication, and therapy” are still taboo.
Have we forgotten how to interact with one another kindly, saying words that plant seeds of love into the minds of everyone? Have we forgotten how to feed them the proper nourishment and care to grow a beautiful garden? Or, have we become so caught up in spreading toxic language and stigmas that we kill off any and every seed planted, because we don’t want to see that others are hurting and that others are grasping at the chance for help?
I think it’s time for a little bit of a revolution, don’t you? I challenge you to look past the stigma, look past the pills, look past the therapy, and look past the episodes of panic or depression.
Plant those tiny little mustard seeds of hope into not only the souls of those who are questioning their mental health, but of everyone, because whether you’re healthy or not, upkeep is important.
Take care of yourself and the people around you because, in the end, we all have to live with each other; that’s what society is.
Be proud of the journey that your mental health has taken you on and how you have handled it; you have done a great job.
Break the stigma- I promise you won’t regret it.
For another journey, please watch My Pill Journey, a video made by BuzzFeed.