The Journey of Mental Health
Being conscious about Mental Health and how it truly affects our lives wasn’t introduced to me until I was into my Mid-20’s. I was in New York, a fresh 24 year old, couch hopping and grinding to get established in the greatest city in the world. I was working non-stop sometimes 20 days in a row, between working Sales + Marketing at Staple Pigeon, interning at Reed Space, part-time at Rime, and working freelance you tend to start to burn out. I had just moved from my Hometown of Flint, MI to New York, and now I was ‘adulting’, but I was met with a wave of feelings and emotions that had never felt before.
My heart would race all day, literally pounding out of my chest, days where I’d feel like I was suffocating and couldn’t breathe, days where I could barely function properly, or didn’t want to move out of bed. After a few months I pretty much realized that it was anxiety. And the cousin of anxiety, '“depression” was coming to hang out as well. Every situation, trauma, unresolved issue, and doors I hadn’t properly closed all came back at the same time. I couldn’t create, I couldn’t operate, I was doubting my own work and my own work. I had to lean on my faith in Christ, along with going to therapy to work on the most important part of myself MY MIND. Becase If our minds aren’t in the right space, how can we create and do the things we love?
“If our minds aren’t in the right space how can we create and do the things we love to do?”
Photo by: Finalis Valdez
I think sometimes as a Black male and in our culture we don’t talk about anxiety and depression as it seems to make us feel less masculine or weak. Honestly I’ve learned that being able to tap into yourself, grow, learn how to express your feelings and face your demons takes more strength than to never acknowledge it.
Healing isn’t always as Linear as we want it to be, there’s some weeks where I feel like I’m perfectly fine. Then there’s weeks where my mind feels like everything is against me and it’s under attack and all of those thoughts you thought we’re taken care of come back. In the midst of that God promises us that through it all he’s with us and going to heal. Through those ups and downs we have to lay it at his feet ask for his help, and give ourselves grace to grow through it. Because we’re OVERCOMING, it may seem delayed, but each day you put in the work, each day you get that much better.
A few things that have really helped me grow and get a better hold on my Mental Health consistently are:
1.) Therapy isn’t bad, IT’S GOOD, I’ve been. It helps you catch bad thought patterns you’ve had for years and allows you to deal with traumas and situations that you have placed in the back of your mind and used unhealthy ways to cope with them. Sometimes a neutral party that’s not a family member or friend that makes unbiased opinions and just listens and guide you is usually a good place to start.
2.) Remember the TRUTH about yourself. For me i work to live my life by Faith, so whenever im feeling outside of myself I have some go to scriptures that I use to fight the lies in my brain
“Be strong & very courageous, for I will never leave you of forsake you.” - Joshua 1:9
Promises to always be there for us, so when fear strikes we can be strong knowing God has our back.
“For I’ve loved you with an everlasting love, and unfailing kindness” - Jeremiah 31:3
For the areas where we feel hurt or lost, or just unworthy. We’re loved.