Member-only story
MENTAL HEALTH
Why I’m Treating My Mental Health Like a Full-Time Job
I haven’t always paid attention to my mental health. In fact, it took a long time for me to even grasp the very concept of it. How can something so elusive, something that you can neither see nor touch be either in good or in bad health?
I was a teenager when I started realizing what it meant to have a mental illness. But back then I still didn’t see the need to pay particular attention to my healing or any reason to take care of my emotional well-being. My approach was the irregular intake of strong anti-depressants paired with a large dose of denial. It worked for some time.
But this obviously didn’t go well for too long. Making my depression invisible and living in my bubble of denial and self-hatred was the single worst thing I have ever done to myself.
I have come a long way since then. And to keep my mind nurtured, happy and healthy I know that I have to nourish and cherish every bit of what is left of my mental health that hasn’t already been permanently replaced with mental illness. Yes, this is how I like to think of my chronic depression — I am sure that much of my mental health is irreversibly damaged, but I am passionately protecting the functioning bits and pieces that are left.
