Why does mentality matter?

When I first started the blog I had the punchline "It really does" because your mental health is one of the key components to a better life. Mental health struggles knows no race, gender, ethnicity or religion and can be debilitating if left untreated for long periods of time. They say "pray it away" and sure prayer is soothing and good to practice but sometimes you need some medical intervention. God knows how much I prayed away the anxiety and depression but it didn't take them away. It's like praying away high blood pressure. You need medication to control your blood pressure and the same goes for anxiety and severe depression.

Admitting that you have a problem is the first step. You could be masking your symptoms by dabbling in things to distract yourself like drinking alcohol more than usual or taking all sorts of pills to make the feeling go away. Masking depressive disorders and anxiety disorders is almost impossible because it's bound to come to light at some point. Keeping busy so you forget is also not healthy because you aren't addressing the actual problem that consumes you and debilitates you. I find it extremely hard to just have a day where I do nothing. I can't watch a movie and lie on the couch because I feel miserable and I feel as though my mind needs to work overtime to block out what I'm feeling.

There are many people out there at varying ages that suffer with mental health disorders and although their reasons might be small to you, it's magnanimous for them. Emotions can't be controlled over night and it takes work to actually control your thoughts and realise that your thoughts are just thoughts. A thought is just a thought until you act on it. If you tell yourself you are going to have a gloomy day, that's exactly what will happen. Although easier said than done, look in the mirror and say "Yes I'm anxious but I'm going to be okay and the anxiety will be there and I acknowledge it being there". This is something I struggle to do and I'm working on it.

Overthinking is a wonderful hobby practiced by alot of people. We tend to over analyse people's behaviour and we over analyse their movement in our lives. Most of the time we blame ourselves for their selfishness and question our own integrity. Has the thought ever occurred to you that maybe that person is just selfish? Of course not, we blame ourselves and fall deeper into the pit of despair.

The future is not our problem and if you believe in God you would know that your path is predetermined and planned out already. What is the point of us thinking that far along anyway? A person's actions towards us cannot be controlled however your response to their actions can be. There are people out there that can be absolute missiles of misery and their aim is to make others miserable - stay away from people like that. We can't take everything personally because sometimes, the problem isn't necessarily you, it's a situation or a circumstance that has caused it.

Try not to take other people's behaviour too seriously. That's our main problem, we take it personally and blame ourselves for something that another person has done to us. The behaviour of others cannot be controlled by you, always remember that.

There are a ton of people out there that can relate to what I'm saying and as much as something may hurt or disappoint you, there are lessons within it that you learn.

Giving a depressed person a gym member ship card is not going to fix their problem, them showing up to the gym can. It's all about you putting in the effort for a better quality of life.

In my own personal experience when it hits me the thought of doing exercise is not the first to come to mind. When you suffer from severe depression, getting out of bed is a victory of some sort. Obviously you feel absolutely terrible and most times can't get out of bed. With that said, even though it may be hard to drag yourself out of bed - do it. Movement helps because when you move, you move literally and figuratively from one attitude to the next. If you sit there and ponder on your thoughts for hours, you are manifesting those feelings and worsening the situation.

Being burnt out from long work days or long days in general is another huge factor within the depressive disorder checklist. Constantly working and not having a proper rest can contribute to a wonderful mirage of terrible feelings and can lead you to a full on mental breakdown. Annual leave is there for a reason - you don't have to wait for December to have a break.

Being honest with the people you live with is another very important thing to do because your living environment is where you either heal or relapse. Personally I found it extremely difficulty in confiding to my 71 year old father because I didn't think he would understand. In hindsight, he was understanding and but cried and wished I had opened up sooner. Talking about it is so important and necessary especially to your loved ones. Opening up about how you feel lightens the load because when you say it out loud that feeling in your chest starts to ease. Also, if you don't tell your immediate family, how will they know how to help you?

It's a taboo topic in many households and sometimes the older folk may not competely understand, but that's okay. You don't need an answer from anyone, just some reassurance. From my experience, there are many things I would have done differently but it's already done. I can't go back and undo them like a computer with ctrl Z. I have to live with my actions and be kind to myself. So do you. You need to be kind to yourself. If nobody told you today, it's ok if you don't feel like a big ball of energy always bouncing in the room. Even helium balloons fall after a few hours after reaching the ceiling.

Your healing is at your own pace, there's no timeframe and no clock. You owe it to yourself to live a life that means more than the disease and the battle. You deserve to live a full life, one with good things and bad things and be able to face them both as they come into your life. Your mental wellbeing controls everything in your life because it's your mental state to handle life, love, family, work and whatever else we deal with on a daily basis. It's not something you push aside or lock up in a box and pretend everything is ok. When things are not okay, we need to be able to cope with that be it by talking to a close friend or seeing a doctor.

Your mind controls almost every aspect of your life. What you think, you become. So why do we put our mental health on the backburner? Is it because of shame? Is it because of the stigma? Is it because you don't know what to do about it? Depression, anxiety, ptsd and the laundry list of mental health disorders control every action of your life. If you feel depressed, you are not going to enjoy life nor will you be able to fully embrace what you have. It's such a pity we feel this way because we have so much to be grateful for. Sure it doesn't always feel that way but in every dark corner, there's a light that gets brighter with time. Think of your cellphone, when the battery is low the functionality of the phone dips because the device knows what takes up its energy and switches to a mode whereby those functions are not available. How wonderful is that? Our phones are made to have those functionalities so why can't we condition our brain in the same way?

Our methods of recharging are different and everyone has their own charger for their brain and their own energy source. Some people exercise, others paint and sometimes people just rest when they need to. If you keep leaving yourself on 4% battery life, your functionality will be hindered. You won't be able to think clearly and rationally. You won't be able to have the energy to do the most simplest of tasks. If you continuously wait for your battery to decline, you are most likely going to have a mental breakdown. Mentality matters because it controls our entire physiology and abilities. If you aren't mentally fit, everything begins to deteriorate.

It's time to lift the curtain on depression and it's time to claim your life back... Don't you think?