Its very common for people suffering from mental health issues to keep quiet about their situation, I know I did for a long time. It feels like you’re burdening others with your problems and don’t want to feel like you’re seeking attention or being selfish. But it important that you talk about how you’re feeling with people you trust, whether it be friends, family or a health professional. You are so much less alone than you think you are.
Get it out.
Opening up and expressing my situation to a trusted person completely changed the way I viewed my depression and myself. I was fighting my battle entirely alone inside my own head and it was exhausting, both physically and mentally. I remember feeling like I was a psychopath, a freak, someone who was not normal. It felt like I was alone, and thought that it was so rare for someone to feel the way I was feeling. Once I started opening up to people (it gets easier every time) I felt that all the craziness inside my head was expelled from my being, like a weight off of my shoulders and out of my chest. I felt that I had a support base that I could go to for different opinions on how I should handle everything.
Learn.
You learn a lot about yourself once you start to talk about things with other people, like what aspects of your condition you’re willing to share. I never told anyone how bad it really was, but I felt that was not the point, the point was that my friends and family now knew that I felt like shit sometimes, and I could express how I was feeling without judgement and that expression made me feel better. Once I started talking to people I also learned how common mental health conditions are and that makes you feel like part of something bigger instead of alone. Talking to someone about it helps make sense of your situation, and your friend can act as a mirror that you can reflect upon yourself.
Connect.
Talking to people also allows for you to connect with your friends on a much deeper level. You’ll know which people you can tell and which you cant based on their personality. Instead of just having banter and small talk, you’re discussing something that really matters, and often friends feel honoured that you trust them enough to share all this personal information. Friends can often reciprocate and tell you things that you may have never knew about them either, which further strengthens your friendship. I learned that three of my friends similarly shared some sort of depressive disorder, information I never would’ve known had I kept quiet.
Conversations about mental health need to be had, to benefit both yourself and the people you love and trust. The alternative to not expressing these thoughts and feelings, is receding inside your own head causing a constant mental and emotional struggle, who wants that? You will only be met with support, if not they are not your real friends. You will lose if you try and fight this by yourself. Go find out who your real friends are and get it all out. Go tell someone, this is the start of you getting back to being happy.
From the ashes, you will rise.
Liam