Mental Health Month
So May is Mental Health Month, and today is supposed to be a Mental Health Month blog party. The goal is to educate the public about mental health, decrease stigma about mental illness, and discuss strategies for making lasting lifestyle and behavior changes that promote overall health and wellness.
Back when I was in high school (or maybe earlier. I actually don’t remember exactly) I was diagnosed with depression. I was on medication for years, but I haven’t been on meds for years now. I actually haven’t even seen a therapist or clinical psychologist or anything in about ten years. I haven’t had a professional diagnosis, but based on research I’ve done about mental illness and (admittedly non-impartial) study of my own behaviors and moods, I’m fairly convinced that I fit somewhere on the bipolar spectrum. It’s something that scares me constantly, and that fear has influenced a lot of my more recent music, particularly the songs I’ve written since “Odds” that are yet to be released.
But along with the fear, I recognize that ultimately I am okay. I am OK and I will be okay. The illness I have - whether it’s bipolar or something else - is definitely real and definitely has real effects on my internal processes and my interactions with others, but it won’t ruin my life. Hell, if anything it’s stimulated creativity in me, whether it’s just the songs it’s immediately inspired or, as I suspect, the many more that have been products of it’s effects. I am fully aware that bipolar disorders, depression, and other mental illnesses can be potentially fatal, and I promise now to everybody that if I ever feel like I’m in danger that I will seek professional help, but for now I seem to have a handle on things. I hope that everyone living with mental illness can at least make that same promise.
So there’s that. One in four Americans experiences a mental health disorder every year, according to the National Institutes of Mental Health. I am not alone. If you are one of us, you are not alone. Now you can go back a few posts and listen to my song “Things Is Getting Rougher” and understand better that sense of acceptance and optimism.
