Maintaining My Mental Health

Maintaining My Mental Health: what my therapist taught me at the young age of 10.

Drugs, journaling and Adele.

Mental Health is something soooo many people, especially young adults and teens experience and shit it can be hard. Trust me, been there done that! Still doing that. As much as sitting in your bed listening to Adele feels like it's helping, it's probably not the healthiest form of recovery and healing. Don't get me wrong! Adele saves lives obviously and I still sit alone sometimes hoping she will cure my depression in a 2 minute long song but regardless I am gonna share some things I found help me on the road to happiness.

So here is a few things I have learned from my own experiences and my grade 5 therapy sessions. Sorry for being a messed up kid mom.

Tip #1 - Journaling

One of the first things you learn in therapy and probably after googling "I wanna die" is journaling. Sounds kind of lame and yea nobody wants to sit down and write about the things that bother them but trust me it's helpful. The best part about this tip is that you can write about whatever you want, including how much you hate that bitch in English class and nobody can stop you. When I started journaling, I was cussing people left right and centre and fuck that felt good! Releasing how I was feeling on the daily was great relief. Nobody wants those things building up inside.

Tip #2 - Stop listening to sad music!

POV: you had a shitty day, get home, turn the lights out, "hey Siri shuffle Bon Iver". Definitely a terrible idea. Okay you can listen to Exile once and let ur emotions out but thats it. It's important to let ur body feel these emotions but then you gotta turn it around. I watched a Tik Tok recently of a girl who whenever was feeling down would blast Party Rock Anthem by LMFAO to feel better, which come on, try feeling sad while that long is playing. You absolutely can't. Music is healing. I have my Spotify running all the time. Whether I'm making food, getting ready for the day, driving to work or even just laying in bed on my phone. Something I started doing was making playlists related to good memories in my life.

For example, the day I finally felt my anti-depressants working, I created a playlist of all the songs I was shuffling, songs that made me feel happy. I called that playlist "citalopram" named after my meds (shoutout Sarah for the pills), and of course included a photo of Rue from Euphoria in rehab cause I thought it was kind of funny. Another playlist I made was all the songs I listen to with my friends in the car because I knew that was a time I truly was happy. Moral of the story, more LMFAO, less Lewis Capaldi.

P.S. My Spotify is linked so you can listen to my playlists cause they are fucking phenomenal.

TUNES

Tip #3 - Find a new hobby.

Now, when I was in my dark cloud, I noticed that the only time I forgot about that shitty ass feeling was when I was distracted doing something I enjoy. My personal hobby is blogging (clearly) and social media. It's funny because you know how people say "social media is so bad for your mental health, delete it, cleanse yourself", yea I can't relate at all because thats all I was fucking doing. I knew I loved fashion and styling so I started taking more time to go take pictures, edit and post them to my feed. Perfecting my aesthetic and sharing my passion kept me distracted from the fact that I had that small feeling of death on my mind. Now obviously not everyones hobby is sitting and watching how many likes they get per minute like me but it can be literally anything. Art, music, dancing, sports, video games, there are so many options. It's just about finding what makes you happy.

Tip #4 - Reaching out.

I was lucky enough to have parents who are super understanding of mental health and its impacts but some people are not as lucky. Regardless if your parents understand or not, there are always other ways to reach out. Whether it's your best friend, grandma, or even school counsellors, somebody out there will listen.

Fuck I listen to peoples issues all the time. Been there done that and it never bothers me (unless its the same girl complaining about her cheating boyfriend, just fucking break up with him dude). Anyway, talk to someone. Get that help. Feeling like this all the time is never comfy or healthy.

Tip #5 - Drugs!!!

Nope not heroin. Anti depressants! Now clearly I have no real education about them but I have been through a few and can share a few experiences. I am in no way telling you that medication is the only way to feel better, for me it was my final option to help me heal, I just know starting them can be hella hard. Most times people give up 5 days in cause damn those side effects suck. They do not make it easy on you. The first pill I was put on actually made my head wanna explode, like blow the fuck up and I was thinking okay is it worth it taking 6 Advils a day just to feel better? Probably not. So I went off them cold turkey which made life worse obviously BUT then I found my holy grail. Of course I felt like shit for the first week or so on them which is normal but after that, I finally started feeling happy and like I could actually leave my house. I guess what I'm trying to say here is, I know at first meds can suck. The headaches, need to yack all over yourself and zero appetite but you can do it. Push past that shit just for a week and I promise things will get better!

Again, I am not a doctor and probably don't know what I'm saying so definitely talk to them first.

Mental Health is Important

I hope you can take something away from this in order to help yourself heal. Obviously I would suggest trying Party Rock Anthem before you go medicate yourself but anyways whatever helps! Check out my Spotify playlists if you need any inspiration and even my Instagram feed to see what I do on my spare time. You can leave your email and subscribe so you never miss any of my posts. Thanks for reading!