Mental Health Journey

Mental health journey

It seems like over the past few years the word “mental health” has been added to our everyday

language especially in the African American community. We see it everywhere now from social

media, on TV, and we even have the whole month of May classified as mental health awareness

month. What was once labeled as a taboo or dismissed as “crazy” we as people came a long

way in the steps to better understand mental health amongst each other.

About 20.6% of adults living in the U.S experience mental health concerns, that’s 1 in every 5

adults, and approximately 17.3% of black Americans experience mental health concerns. As a

black adult woman in the US, I am part of that 17.3%. I first started experiencing mental health

concerns in my high school years. In my junior and senior years, I became depressed. I just was

not happy with life, or the people around me. I felt stuck, hopeless, and in a bubble. Nothing

excited me, and it was to the point where I even started to think that death was better than

life.

Fast forward to college I moved out of my family’s house, and in with my sister and brother to

attend private UC. At first, I was still in my bubble of solitude. I didn’t want to socialize or be

bothered with people. As I slowly started to get familiar with my new surroundings, I became

less depressed. I wouldn’t say it has completely gone away, but it has become more attainable.

I now the signs and I know that it comes and goes in waves. Changing my environment has

definitely helped and getting rid of toxic people has made a huge impact. Now I am at the point

where I know my life is important, and I have so much to fight and live for. It does scary

sometimes how I can be okay one minute and then completely historical the next, but that is

part of the process. I learned to accept that I will not always be okay and that it is okay for me

to be able to take some time for myself and level myself. I learned that it’s okay to feel and to

not be okay with the way someone makes me feel. I feel like also knowing myself, and learning

more about the way I function, my body functions, and how my mind works also contributed to

me getting better. Watching what I put in my body, what my eyes watch, journaling, writing

down my goals, working out, meditating, and anything that helped me refocus my energy into a

positive light.

Now let me note that during this whole experience I didn’t quit understand what the problem

was. It was actually until I came across Sydel Curry’s (The NBA all-star, 3x champ, Stephen

Curry’s younger sister) Instagram post and YouTube channel where she discussed her mental

health. As she was sharing what she went through it all came back to me. I realized that what I

went through and was currently going through was mental health concerns. That’s when I did

some research and discovered what was going on with me. I didn’t understand my experience

and how I felt and feel until I felt someone else’s years later. Knowing someone else’s journey

was a way to open my own, and educate myself on myself and others.

Now I didn’t write this post to talk about me and what I was going through. I wrote this post to

bring awareness to the community about monitoring yourself and love ones. Know when to get

help. It is okay to not be okay, and to move away from people or an environment that is not

safe for your mental wellbeing. Your mental space is just as important as your physical and

spiritual space. Even if you don’t go through mental issues still look over the sighs and educate

yourself about the different types of mental health, so you know how to handle the concerns of

someone who goes through it. Mental health is far more complicated than just feeling

depressed or being labeled as “crazy”. You never know what anyone goes through in life and

everyone has different battles they go through. Mental health isn’t a new trend that just

popped up. It’s been around and more and more people are starting to pay attention to it.