It's Okay to Feel the Way You Do

When you're feeling angry, sad, lonely, depressed, anxious, just know that it is totally okay for you to feel that way. Not one person on this Earth get's to tell you how to feel or should make you feel bad for the way that you feel. Have you ever had a family member, significant other or even a friend try to tell you, "oh you're fine, just get over it"? Well, I have and at first I believed them, at first I was like, yea I'm good, I'll just move on. But, I wasn't good, I wasn't fine, I was struggling every single day. I just didn't know how to tell the people around me that I loved that I was feeling suicidal. Nobody knew. Until the very day I was going to take my life, my mom finally opened her eyes and saw what was happening. She took me to a counselor the same day and she and the counselor literally saved my life. I wouldn't be here today if God or something hadn't gotten a hold of my mom and said, "Look, your daughter is struggling and she needs help now! Even though down the road I have had those thoughts and feelings again, I was able to pull myself out because of what I had learned, and because of my coping skills. However, when you do have these feelings it's important to accept the feeling and know that it is real. Working through the feelings is also important. Find coping skills that work for you.

Coping skills are things that you can utilize to help you feel better, such as drawing, coloring, music, working out, screaming in a pillow, etc. For me, it's music and singing. I love to sing and it always helps me to get whatever I'm feeling out. What do you do to help yourself? Music has very literally saved my life. As many of you out there, mental illness is a real thing and touches many lives including mine. I live with depression and anxiety every day, but it does not define who I am, even on the really bad days. Music and singing literally saved my life because every time, just as I was about to give up on everything, a song would come on or something would remind me of a song and I could pull myself back out pool I was drowning in. It was so helpful and when I was ready I was able to talk to someone about how I was feeling. Talking out loud about what you're going through can help more than you may know, and trust me when I tell you it's not easy, but it's worth it. Now, people say but what about trust issues? Yes, trust issues are there. It's hard to tell who you can trust with your darkest secrets and thoughts, but there are professionals out there that are trained and educated. Also, talking with a complete stranger about these things may be more helpful than you know because they can look at your situation from a very objective standpoint and help offer solutions you or those closest to you may not be able to see.

Self-care is so important because many jobs and careers that people hold are so stressful and people need things to help them relax. So, how do you relax? If more people spent time taking care of themselves, mentally we would see a huge improvement in mental health care around the world. But many people struggle to recognize mental health as a real issue, and that is a huge mistake. It is real, it does exist. Mental health care in some cases is more important that physical health care. In my opinion, if my family members would have recognized their symptoms earlier, I would have had a better chance of working through mine.

Again, it is okay to feel how you feel, but work through it and utilize coping skills to help you manage those feelings. I hope that some of you find this helpful and informative. Please, everyone, take care of yourselves.