Let's talk about mental health..

 

Let me tell you a story that began in India a while ago.

There was a little girl who was very energetic. She couldn’t sit still at one place and had trouble focusing. She told her parents that she felt different compared to her friends and siblings. Her parents thought that she was a smart girl who could do anything she set her mind to, there was nothing wrong with her, and that she was probably just a bit too lazy. The little girl believed them. She believed that probably it was just as hard for everyone as it is for her, and others are simply better at overcoming hurdles than she is. There were high academic standards set for her at home, so she never had an option to fail. She had to come up with ways to solve her ‘focusing’ problems herself. At home, she would walk back and forth while studying, which helped her concentrate better. At school, she would force herself keep focused by writing down every word that came out of the teacher’s mouth.

She comes from a culture where talking about mental health itself was a big taboo let alone seeking help. The assumption is that you only go to a mental health professional if the struggle is very visible and severe. As she grew up and started to do her own research about mental health, she realized that the struggle she had growing up was not merely her perception, it in fact was very real, and there is a name for it. It was called ADD – Attention Deficit Disorder. She got to know the reasons why she couldn’t concentrate when she was a kid, and why she sometimes still struggles as an adult.

And if you haven’t guessed yet that little girl was me.

Being aware of the condition now helps me channel my energies better and build tools to be more productive and efficient in my personal and professional life.

Mine is not a heart wrenching story. My condition didn’t prevent me from doing what I wanted to do, it just made it difficult. That’s the whole point of this blog - you don’t have to have severe/visible conditions to seek help. Getting the help you need at the right time makes the journey of life much easier.

As we live our lives and start to experience various things, we accumulate a lot of plaque in our brains. A variety of emotions, memories, experiences make us who we are today, how we act in situations, and how we interact with people around us. We all have struggles we deal with daily – some of them can be very traumatic/intense such as loss of a loved one, major life changing event or sometimes they could be daily life nuances such as a persistent physical health issue, an intense work situation, a verbal argument with someone you care about. Regardless of what we deal with, it influences our mental wellbeing.

Just like how our physical body needs regular check-ups, medicines, vitamins, and nutritious food, it’s important to provide similar finetuning for emotional selves as well. Regular mental health check-ins help in building the right tools to deal with the emotional baggage that gets built up overtime. The more we are aware of who we are, our strengths, weaknesses, the better we carry ourselves.

It’s ok to acknowledge the struggles and seek help. Problems usually don't go away by themselves; one has to actively work towards a solution, and the results can be simply liberating!! I’ve recently spoken with someone who had struggled with chronic insomnia for over a decade. The insomnia was so severe that it affected almost all facets of their life. Based on a well-wisher's suggestion, they started therapy. This person shared with me how doing regular therapy (without any medications) helped them sleep better within just couple of months of starting therapy and how amazingly better they started to feel! 

Even though we have better mental health awareness in today’s society, the topic is still not widely discussed. It's important to raise awareness around this. There are multiple ways to go about it - normalizing the mental health related conversations, being empathetic and non-judgmental if/when someone opens up to you, sharing the resources you have with someone in need, and many more. And in the process, you may help a person unlock their potential, save a life/family or make an impact that's even beyond your perception.

Thank you for reading this far. Please let me know of your thoughts and feedback in the comments :)