We all have our reasons.

Tags

Australia, Disease, disorders, health, Mental disorder, mental health issues, mental illness, mental-health, Oceania, Policy and Advocacy

There is never a good time to do something hard. There is never a good time to make changes; I mean come on change is never really convenient. When thinking about treatment I could have given you 10,000 things I could of done rather than work in that uncomfortable space day after day. Maybe if I had spent that time studying my grades would have been higher; if I had spent that time working I would have had more money; if I had spent that time with friends… well maybe I would have had more friends. I could have listed to you at least 100 people who I thought were worse off than me, so therefore I didn’t really need any treatment (right?)

The point is if you gave me a minute; a second really I could have told you at any given time my reason “not to” seek help. So you might be wondering at this point, why did I do it? Why did I continuously give up my time, energy, and money to treatment, to recovery?

Since I began struggling with mental health issues very early in life I also became very attune to the fact that I had two choices as I entered young-adulthood. Choice one was that I allowed my illness to manage me and my future. Choice two was that I learned to manage  my illness . At this point these illnesses had already taken enough from me and I could’t let them take anymore, so I decided to begin the long journey of understanding, managing and growing. There were times when my list of reasons “not to” ran through my thoughts and there were times when I briefly listened to it. But at the end of the day I always came back to these two choices:

1. Let my illness manage me.
2. Learn to manage my illness.

 

Thankfully  choice 2 always won out (and continues to win today). Just remember there is always a reason “not to”. But ask yourself: What am I looking at/for in the big picture?

My name is Erin and This is Where I Stand

Related articles

• Who am I to judge? (jlvickers2013.com)
• Bank signs up to help tackle mental health stigma in City (thetimes.co.uk)
• A Mental Illness Is NOT The Same As A Physical Illness (prideinmadness.wordpress.com)
• Study Finds Genetic Information Has Done Little to Increase Tolerance of Mental Illness (23andme.com)
• Lottery Results and Mental Illness Awareness Week (supinemusings.wordpress.com)
• Day 11: What is the worst thing about your mental illness? (myjourneywithdepression.wordpress.com)
• SNPwatch: Large Study Identifies Two More Genetic Variants Associated with Alzheimer’s Disease (23andme.com)
• SNPwatch: Study Identifies Genetic Variant Associated With Risk For Essential Tremor (23andme.com)
• Health: Causes & Treatment Of Bad Breath (paulikpe.wordpress.com)
• How the Mental Health Industry Creates Disease, Works with Big Pharma (naturalsociety.com)