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Why Your Mental Health Diagnosis Don’t Matter.
Chances are, you or someone you know has dealt with some sort of mental illness. In some people it is very obvious- others, not so much.
Those who suffer from mental illness sometimes hide it from those they love as to not worry anyone. This tends to lead to a very confusing and stressful situation when the person comes out and states what they’ve been dealing with. In my personal experience, I hid my depression for a long time and I hid it well. My parents were confused and didn’t realize the extent of which I had been suffering- when I told them that I had been suicidal, they had no idea what to do.
Before the long list of offical diagnosis the psychiatrist in the mental hospital gave me, I was obsessed with self-diagnosing my problems. Not once did I try and find a way to help myself feel better- I was too focused on how “broken” I was.
I would spend hours upon hours taking quizzes online, such as: “Are You Depressed?” “Are You Bipolar?” “Are You Suffering From Chronic Anxiety?”
I fed off of my self-pitying until it was my only identity.
The offical diagnosis didn’t relieve my bad habits, yet only made them worse.
Now I had excuses for everything.
School? I’d have a “panic attack” and have my mom pick me up.
Chores? I was feeling too “depressed.”
Do something wrong? Well, you can’t get mad at me because I’ll try to kill myself.
All of this is not to say that I was faking my mental illnesses- they were and still are very real to me.
What I did, though, is only focus on the negative parts of life and that ended up being destructive for myself and my family.
It’s hard to put into words, but hopefully someone who reads this will know or will come to know the relief that comes with “forgetting” your impairments.
I used my diagnosis’ as an excuse for everything and made that the majority of myself.
I was sent to wilderness therapy in North Carolina. Sitting against a tree, looking up at the sky through the leaves with the calm scent of fresh air and nature around me, I realized that I was the one making my life so miserable.
I stopped thinking about the things that were wrong with me and instead focused on the things I was capable of.
Wilderness therapy helped teach me how to be okay with being happy.
If you think you may be suffering from a mental health condition, please seek a professional’s help. Get on medication, attend therapy- whatever you’d need to do.
Your mental health matters. Your feelings matter. You as a person, reading this article, matter.
Your diagnosis? Don’t think about it. Don’t let it limit your beautiful life. Instead shape your own existence without letting the negative define you.
