Write What You Know

Greek Museum by deannadeevine

There have been so many people that advise, “Write what you know.” Honestly, I had to ask out loud, “What the hell does that mean?!”

Turns out, it means what it says.

I had to reflect and really, truly ask myself, “What do I know?” Well, I know many things. I know food, I know Disney, I know random facts about nature and I know mental health struggles. I landed on the fact that I know mental health struggles. I know a lot more than I think because I’ve battled with it for so long and unfortunately, it will be a lifelong battle.

So here’s what I know.

• Your mental health struggles puts you in a position to lose friends because they either do not understand or they do not have the patience to be there. I’ve gone through a roller coaster of ups and downs with mental health and most of it is due to medication change. I’ve lost friends as well as the respect for family members due to my mental struggles.
• Mental health struggles are a lifelong battle. Once you accept that, you are able to welcome a multitude of ways to heal, cope, understand and know what helps you through the bad days.
• The word ‘trigger’ may sound overrated, but it is a very real thing in the world of mental health. I had to get to know my triggers very well because each trigger had a different response for me to calm myself down.
• Everybody has different mental struggles. One thing that helped me tremendously is to do soul searching. What does that look like? Researching your past. I asked myself a series of questions: did any family members have mental illnesses? Did my parents? How old do I think I was when I first saw the signs? I also had to forgive myself for a lot of things that I went through emotionally because my younger self only knew how to survive, not to understand what was going on with me.
• Vulnerability allows you to be your truest self and people can see it and feel it.

My journey with mental health continues and writing about it is an outlet. Sharing my story and starting a conversation about mental health is a goal because those who struggle need to know they are not alone.