This is my first ever contribution to The Mighty. I actually wrote it for another forum on World Mental Health Awareness Day a couple of years ago but it still holds true for me today.
My depression tells me that there is no hope. Anywhere. Ever. In small ways and enormous ways. I probably tell you I'm 'tired'.
My anxiety tells me that everything I think, say and do is wrong. Disastrously, catastrophically WRONG. It can feed my hungry imagination with fears, real and imagined, at the faintest trigger. I probably tell you, with a laugh, that I'm 'just a disaster'.
I strap on my smile, my biggest laugh, my courage and throw diversions like a pro. I fool most of the people all of the time.
This is me. Yes. That's right. No, thanks. I don't need cheering up or calming down. I definitely do not need you to fix me, whatever Coldplay say. I might need distraction sometimes. I might need solitude sometimes. Hugs are good sometimes. Just be you, alongside me being me. DO NOT tell me how to get over it. EVER.
My battles are skirmishes compared to a handful of my precious people who are in full scale nuclear wars. You probably don't know they are, either. You don't need to know. But I want to honour them. They'll know who they are, although their own demons might tell them not to be so self-absorbed. Our demons lie, you see. We know this already. They do not define us. We know that, too. We're not stupid. We're just fighting invisible battles, all of us.
World Mental Health Awareness Day. It really should be every day. For some of us it already is. But we'll get there.
✅ #Depression #Anxiety #WorldMentalHealthDay #Howtohelpme
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