It’s a piece of you – make it yours

Your mental health is a piece of you, similar to your likes, dislikes, pet peeves and triggers. It’s yours! Don’t hesitate to own every part of your illness – be it depression, anxiety, or a phobia – to overcome challenges and empower yourself. There are those who, no doubt meaning well, will dictate your sickness for you. At the end of the day, no one but yourself knows how to manage yourself in a way that makes your sickness manageable.

Even a clinician will only go so far in helping you pharmacologically maintain the different biological chemicals you body needs for optimal function. A psychologist or psychiatrist will use differential therapies – behavioural, cognitive, chemical or a combination – to guide you on the road to recovery. This is exactly what all of these external sources do – assist.

At the end of the day, it is your job to use any method imaginable to achieve your very own Shangri-La health. Of course, asking for help is a sign of strength as it requires showing vulnerability. If any one of the available crisis links work for you, that is great! You have owned your illness. Congratulations!

But, if this is not your route to self-empowerment, then do not feel obliged to entertain anyone. You are not at a dinner party, where you have to smile, nod and chat away regardless of whether you want to or not. This is your life, your illness, and your road to peak health. Do it your way!

As I’m sure you have been told countless times, it is true that your cognition is affected, which could impact your emotions, thoughts and decision-making ability. But then again, that is just a possibility. You are strong, not weak. Strong enough to know when and how to rely on your loved ones for strength, ask for help, and use extrinsic resources in your journey of resilience and self-empowerment.

A lot of times, I’ve heard friends talk about their self-diagnosed depression. They will talk about the struggles of getting out of bed, and back into things they previously loved. However, this does not fit the clinical definition of debilitating function in normal life, which is a key component of depression. In this case, self-realization is the first step to taking appropriate steps to get back to your old self, or at the very least, identifying how to get there.

Your mental illness is a part of you regardless of what you have come to believe. If you accept it to be a part of you and of your life, you gain control of the illness instead of letting it drag you down. Treat your depression, phobia, or addiction like you would an unwanted candy. Life is change.