DEPRESSION-YOU ARE NOT ALONE

 

 

Understanding the Mental Health Journey

By Keith Lytton

This is the first time I am talking about my journey through mental health. Well, I hope this article helps anyone out there feeling alone or similarly misunderstood all through.

Firstly, mental health in this case can be seen as a journey or pathway to recovery from a mental illness or managing mental health conditions through learning positive coping mechanisms and behavior changes over time.

Ok with that little knowledge let’s see what conditions are common: anxiety, insomnia, bipolar disorder, depression, ADHD, PTSD, schizophrenia, etc.

Back to my story, so here I was in a perfect setup getting through the world’s daily routine of trying to get the best for my people. One would ask how you reach that point. This comes through past trauma, current pressure eg trying to figure out how to get a job, low business turnover, worry, etc.

For a very long time, I had a trait of taking much responsibility for those around me, and being the firstborn in our family defines this. When I started having anxiety from the day-to-day pressures of life I would often worry about what I could do to get the next check, job, or client.

It’s normal to worry about how and what to achieve but there’s a certain extent to which this should be, I was off, now with anxiety. My heart would beat so fast at night and as I slept only to wake up panicking over a future action that I could not define. This happened occasionally and was worrying at this stage, One is fond of slipping away into alternative control measures. Well, here’s the thing it’s best to try meditation or therapy that eases one from having such thoughts which are mostly uncertain of any future events.

The hardest battle anyone can have is one between yourself. I always fought within myself and worried a lot about getting the best for my family and life generally. Forgetting about myself.

It gets harder to heal when financially things were quite tight.

Now, here’s an explanation of what’s happening at this point!

Unusually, one always fights with himself or herself. Much questioning and doubt and trying to get a solution to each battle, worst of all is with past traumatic experiences it may result in different behavior from the norm.

Lost in an individual world where you are constantly in deep thought detached from normalcy in society or simply the real world. Now I get to understand when I see a person walking down the street in a way we would perceive as a madman. This is a real thing and many people at this point try to cover it up with different mechanisms but in reality, would need a more permanent solution.

Insomnia then checks in, where all these things hit me at night and my hours either have to tilt or worse shorten my resting time. Remember as men it’s a bit different, we tend to be very silent on what affects us as opposed to women. As a father, I have to be strong for my family. Also, knowing where everyone is at mentally, and emotionally and still offering the best provision. But here I am falling deep silently.

Fast Forward…

The climax in the healing process is when you decide to work on yourself from within, other than from any external support system.

The feeling of being alone is always a destruction in this phase however, let me be clear it is a very and I emphasize again very uncomfortable period. Here you will feel betrayed, abandoned, and more also as if those who should understand you are nowhere near you. All these emotional hurdles are meant to extend your healing process and only when you see yourself from within and use that concept of making yourself the best version for the ones around you, is when you are on the right track.

This applies to relationships too, sometimes it takes a very uncomfortable period to build the best versions out of both of you hence a stronger bond.

I am still on a healing process as it never stops.

A change in mindset drives one to better engagements and behaviors. One gets to see the world from a very critical and cautious point of view not forgetting the positivity in every situation.

Heal thyself to be a healthy self.

No one is ever alone in this journey, always look through it like a season.

Whichever way you want to see it don’t let your hurdles drag you down.

Lastly, an analogy I would use from the animal kingdom. There is a season of rainfall and drought, During a drought, the animals have a hard time and eg. elephants would walk for hundreds of miles to get water through the matriarchal memory. On the other hand, when there is plenty of rainfall there is abundant grass and here the zebras and grazers have a great time or more so a hard time as more and more keep getting hunted by predators.