The importance of being aware.
Today is mental health awareness day.
Funny old things awareness days…how much can being aware help really?
Turns out probably a lot. If one person understands that having Mental Health issues is something that effects more of us than not, then we’re making a difference.
That’s why I’m joining in today, to add my voice, out there, specifically as a fully grown-ass man, to the number, who understand that Mental Health issues happen, and they happen to me.
As you might expect, before reaching my almost forty years old grown-ass man state, I was a kid.
Pretty standard.
My first real mental health issues started to hit me in my late teens, I was at university, on my own, suffering from self confidence issues, manifesting themselves as what would be categorised as bouts of depression. At points I felt like I was living two versions of myself, the public persona of fun and good times and the private, anxious, unsure, terrified one.
I didn’t understand it. I thought there was something wrong with me. Clearly. Even better, I didn’t talk to anyone. Cause you don’t. Because…well that’s what men do right? Deal with it. That’s what I kept doing.
For. AGES.
No, really. AGES. I still do. There are still times where the weight of the world overtake me, and it takes me to get to breaking point before I say anything about it.
It’s dumb. I know it is, but admitting that you are not doing ok, that you have mental bruises and scars isn’t easy. It should be, but it’s not.
Over the years, slowly, I’ve figured ways of dealing with anger problems, depression, stress, fatigue. But I took way too long to get there, and I still get caught out.
Don’t make the same mistake, don’t be afraid, you can do it, talk to someone. You are not the only one.
