Mental Health Awareness - You Are Not Alone

For my last post for mental health awareness month, I want to take a moment and speak to the awareness we all already have. While talking about mental health has become increasingly less stigmatized, there are environments and folks that are not always open to acknowledging the real effects of mental health. Not feeling validated hits a core wound in all of us. While I hope that has not been your experience, I would like to say that I see you, and I am sorry that your mental pain has not been acknowledged in the manner that you needed.

We all have moments of struggle. I sit with folks daily that share the depths of their pains and mental health challenges. Unless you knew them and heard their experience, you would have no idea they were hurting. Mental health comes across as a silent struggle.

I hear clients comparing themselves, their relationships, and lifestyles to those around them or what they are seeing online. We all have an outer image projected into the world. Sometimes an image that is carefully curated. Behind these images are wounds, grief, traumas, anxieties, days we cannot get out of bed, desires for a new life, or struggles with attention. No one is exempt from mental health struggles.

I hope that you are able to find validation in your own story and also have insight into the stories of those around you. There is so much going on underneath the surface. I try to approach everyone with a manner of “what happened to you?” as opposed to “why are you like this?” Approaching others with curiosity allows our eyes to be open to more than what we are seeing. Our boss with the short messages, our sibling with the scowl, the neighbor with the messy yard, the friend that canceled, the random driver that cut you off… They all have their own story. Curiosity leads us away from taking their actions as personal and taking a step in their experience to know something else might be going on in their own mental health. 

While our struggles can feel isolating and lonely, we do not have to be alone. Others have experienced what you are feeling. If you are needing support, do not hesitate to reach out. I hope this series was helpful in some way of increasing your understanding of ways to impact your mental health and ways to understand other’s mental health as well.

Healing starts here, wherever you are.