Annie is 30 years and old and eager to gain blogging experience. She’s also an aspiring artist learning to make jewelry and other crafts with the hopes of one day sharing her creations with the world online. Annie’s a hard worker and is always there for her family, whether it’s helping out around the house or just curling up on the couch with them and their pets for some relaxation and bonding. You can always count on her to quote movie lines just to make you laugh or to learn new recipes to share delicious food and baked goods with you.
View all postsMental Health Awareness Month and Why It’s Important to Me
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Hello and welcome to May. As you may or may not know, May is Mental Health Awareness month. I decided that I was going to write a blog about mental health and why it’s so important for me to discuss it. Now before I go into this post, I would like to say that I have a family history of mental health issues in my family. I have some family members with mental health issues, and I also have a mental health issue. Living with mental health issues is never really easy, and they can impact your life in ways no one understands. I know this because I see and live it every day. Not everyone understands how it is to live and deal with mental health problems. Now I am going to get into this topic.
The reason I need to discuss mental health is that this topic hits home for me. I have an older sister who lives with mental health struggles every day of her life. She has to see a therapist a couple of times a month. She has been living with these struggles since she was in her teens, especially with depression. She deals with depression, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), and schizophrenia. Some of those issues impact her sleep. Sometimes she has a hard time sleeping, and sometimes she has nightmares. I can’t fully understand how it is to have mental illnesses like that, but I know it’s hell. Anyone would tell you that it’s hard living that way. She doesn’t know that it makes me feel sad to know she has to deal with those problems because I don’t tell her. The only thing I can do is be there for her and be understanding. When anyone has a mental health illness, it’s important that you take time to listen and understand how they feel and try to walk a mile in their shoes. I feel sad because I can’t help her, and I can’t make the problems go away. She wants to live a life without these struggles, she wants to be healthier, and I want that for her too. It’s not fair that anyone should have to struggle every day with things like this, and it’s not fair that it has to impact their lives.
My mother is another person who lives with mental health problems. She lives with PTSD and depression. She has had anxiety since she was a child and has had depression issues for as long as I have been around, as far as I know.
I also live with a mental health illness on top of my autism. I have obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), but never thought of it as a mental illness. I have been living with that for most of my life. I sometimes get depressed, but most of the time it’s for personal reasons. It usually lasts for a few days, and I cry, then I just move on. Some people don’t understand what mental illness is, and so the reason I brought up some of my family members and their issues is to explain what it is and why I decided to talk about this. I think it’s very important that people try and understand what it is and reach out to any loved ones who struggle with their mental health. They need to know they are loved and that you are there for them. They should always know they are not alone.
The one thing I would like to say is that mental illness is a silent battle that no one can see. You won’t know if someone is struggling because you can’t see the struggle. It’s like fighting with your mind, and I know it’s scary, and I also know that it’s hard. If I could say one thing, it would be that it’s okay to not be okay. Anyone out there who reads this, I want them to know that they are loved and not alone.
I want people to know that issues such as schizophrenia are very complex issues that have to do with the ability to think, feel, and the way you behave. A person with schizophrenia can often lose touch with reality and their train of thought. They may say or do things out of line, but that’s their mind telling them to do so, and they don’t actually want to do that. The one thing that is troublesome for those living with the issue is that they can hear voices either in their head or voices that aren’t there. And it’s not that they just hear voices, but they most often see nonexistent things. This group of people needs special care and special types of treatment for the rest of their lives, whether it’s hospitalization or medications. They can’t go through their lives without the proper amount of help. I wanted to share this piece of information with everyone because I think it’s very important that people truly know what schizophrenia is and how it severely impacts one’s life. I don’t think many people know that it’s one of the most severe mental health issues, not to mention the worst, because it disrupts your life in every aspect.
Now I am going to end this post by saying that I hope anyone who reads this, who may be struggling, knows that they are loved and that it is okay to not be okay. Please never forget that. Have a nice month, everyone.
Annie Snow
