Madi’s thoughts on mental health:
When I was about 13, I remember things changing. I started to become more anxious about things I had always been able to manage, and extremely sad out of nowhere. I remember feeling this way for years. I couldn’t figure out what was going on or what was wrong with me. All my peers seemed like happy, regular teenagers. I thought I just needed to try harder to be happier and less anxious. I chalked it up to “becoming a teenager”. Several years later, by the time I was 17 I knew I wasn’t okay. I could no longer shake the sadness I felt almost constantly at this point. I was having panic attacks at school. I didn’t feel like myself. This was the point that I decided that I wasn’t going to wait around for things to get better or someone to “save me”, I was going to help myself.
I ended up seeing a nurse practitioner who specialized in pediatric mental health. She was very kind and empathetic, and helped me realize that everything that I had been feeling was actually really common. I started taking an antidepressant and talking to a therapist a few times a month. Both interventions helped. I felt much better than I had before. I felt like I was surviving again.
I stayed on the antidepressant and continued going to therapy for a few years. I eventually got to a point that I had so much going on in my life and was feeling better enough that I didn’t feel like I needed my antidepressants or therapist anymore. I stopped the SSRI and for a few years I felt like I was managing just fine.
But to no surprise, a few years later I found myself falling back into a mental health rut. I was sad, anxious, and struggling to cope. I went back to the same therapist I had seen a few years prior and got back on Lexapro. During this time, I became extremely passionate about mental health. I was in nursing school at the time, and loved everything about the psych units we covered. I started educating myself on mental health through other literature as well, including podcasts, books, scholarly articles, etc.
We have a mental health crisis nationwide. Our society (and yes, even our children) are more anxious, depressed, and suicidal than ever before. It is time for all of us to contribute to change the way or society views mental illness.
The creation of psychiatric drugs are nothing short of a miracle to modern medicine. We no longer hide away individuals having mental health crises in asylums to be abused and neglected. However, as many (including myself) can attest— psychiatric drugs are not always a “fix all.” Typically, SSRIs and other psychiatric medications require dosage increases over time, as the effectiveness seems to decrease as time goes on. Individuals are much more likely to see overall improvements in mental wellness when psychiatric drugs are used in ADDITION to healthy habits including adequate sleep, consuming a nutritionally dense diet, regular exercise, and cultivating strong support systems. Supporting our most fundamental human needs should be the first method of treating mental distress. These things sound so simple, yet have such a profound impact— and the research supports it.
By implementing these basic routines in my own life- I have noticed huge improvements. I’ve paid closer attention to what I eat and how well I sleep- and how these affect my mental health. By treating these basic things like they are essential to my mental wellness- I feel much more in control of any anxiety or depression that comes up in my day to day life. Additionally, therapy has done wonders for my mental wellbeing.
Our society has made huge strides towards positive and empathetic change regarding mental health. Together, we can continue to decrease stigma surrounding mental health, and cultivate a society that supports overall mental wellness. Human connection is the fuel that drives humanity. Historically, humans are tribal creatures meant to rely on each other for survival. (Lost Connections by Johann Hari is a great read on this and altered my outlook on mental health and our modern society). It’s only been throughout the past couple hundred or so years that we’ve moved towards a more individualistic society, where we are expected to be self sufficient and not rely on others. It’s time for us to reconnect with each other. It’s time to destigmatize talking about mental health challenges. A big challenge requires a community effort towards change. Let’s create a world where nobody has to sit in their darkness alone.
© Copyright Buddy Writes | All Rights Reserved
