MentalHealthAwareness

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Our RECOVERY Reasons May Differ, but RECOVERY Is What Saved Us!

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Our RECOVERY Reasons May Differ, but RECOVERY Is What Saved Us!

September is National Recovery Month, and when I am given a reason to speak up for those in recovery, you better believe I will jump on the opportunity to do so! This month is all about sharing our stories, spreading awareness, and joining together to increase the understanding of mental and substance use disorders.

In this post, I ask the question, “What does RECOVERY mean to you?” and I share some of the answers I received from a handful of influential people that have helped me in my own journey to recovery. We all have our own stories to share, and our own reasons for recovery, but one thing remains the same: recovery changes lives for the better.

Help me fight the stigma that surrounds mental and substance use disorders!

Thank you for reading. I appreciate you.

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“You Aren’t Enough!” & Other Lies My Mind Tries to Convince Me Of!

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“You Aren’t Enough!” & Other Lies My Mind Tries to Convince Me Of!

The idea for this article came to me while in the middle of another moment of weakness, and I decided it was time to talk about it. Not acknowledging our mental illnesses and pretending that everything is okay, I believe, is worse than the mental illness itself. I refuse to let my anxiety get the best of me, or my depression to feed off the worst. I no longer want to feel like I must stay quiet about topics that need to be talked about, so I am here to talk about my own.

In this post, I talk about the lies my mind has often been good at convincing me of, and what I do when I go into panic mode. Whether these moments of weakness last a couple hours, a couple days, or a couple weeks, I am slowly but surely learning how to talk about them because I KNOW I am not alone when it comes to being at war with myself.

Thank you for reading. I appreciate you. 

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Gaining Followers for Losing Weight: How My Online Presence Fueled My Eating Disorder!

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Gaining Followers for Losing Weight: How My Online Presence Fueled My Eating Disorder!

I was about to be a Junior in college when I woke up one morning and decided I no longer liked feeling depressed about the girl I saw in the mirror. So, I changed. Almost as if something just flipped in my brain, I stopped making poor food choices, I increased the amount of exercise I was getting, and I created a “Fitness” page on Twitter to track my journey. It didn’t take long for the pounds to come off, and the followers to flood in. What my followers didn’t know was that the secret to my weight loss was no longer built on a desire to be healthy; it was based on the fact that my behavior was compulsive, and filled will a need for control.
 
In this post, I share the truth behind the girl who had all her followers fooled, and I open up about my personal struggle with a compulsive exercising eating disorder.
 
Thank you for reading. I appreciate you.

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We are All Healing on Our Own Timeline!

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We are All Healing on Our Own Timeline!

Have you ever felt pressure to be at a different place in your life? Or maybe, you are starting to feel like you should have progressed quicker in certain areas? When it comes to ‘Healing’, I have found that most of us are constantly comparing ourselves to those around us, and criticizing ourselves harshly on not being where we feel like we should.

In this post, I use my recovery timeline as an example to show that we are all healing at different speeds, and THAT IS OKAY! We may not be exactly where we want, but it is important that we recognize that everyone is healing from various things; some that take much longer than others.

Regardless of where you are in your ‘Healing’ timeline, I am here to remind you that you are exactly where you are supposed to be, and in due time, you will see why not all things work out the way we want them too.

Thank you for reading. I appreciate you.

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You DO NOT Have to Like Every Person You Meet!

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You DO NOT Have to Like Every Person You Meet!

Throughout our lives, we are going to come across certain people that we just can't seem to get along with, but you know what? This is okay. If you are anything like me, there have been a handful of times where you have felt the need to like someone just because it made the situation less uncomfortable. This could be in regards to the beginning of a romantic relationship, professional acquaintance, or the friend of friend that you just cannot relate to; and not from lack of trying. 

In this post, I talk about situations where we feel like we need to 'like' someone. I share my perspective on why we need to stop doing this, and why it is okay to not connect with every person that we come across.

Thank you for reading. I appreciate you.

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Stop Telling Us We are Suffering. We are SURVIVING!

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Stop Telling Us We are Suffering. We are SURVIVING!

If you didn’t know already, May is the month of Mental Health, and because of this, I decided to start, and end the month with articles both surrounding this topic. It is no surprise that I am not a stranger to my own mental illnesses, but I am here to speak up for those that haven’t figured out a way to talk about their own.

I have never been a fan of using the adjective “Suffering” when it comes to describing how I choose to cope with my own struggles, for I have always thought the word “Surviving” would be more appropriate. We need to stop making it so easy for people to form a stigma around mental health. We need to show the world that we are surviving nonetheless, and we should not be treated any differently.

In this post, I challenge the all too common belief about mental health, and I offer a new perspective for those that may judge what they don’t understand.

Thank you for reading. I appreciate you.