The Ugly Truth Behind Struggling With Your Mental Health

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By Jessica Evans

If you’re like me, and you’re struggling with your mental health, then you’ll be able to relate to this post.

As a mental health blogger, I (and a lot of others) talk about self-care, ways to help with your symptoms, and things you can do to get better. While all of this is great and very important, I feel like we never talk about some of the ugly truths that are a part of struggling with your mental health. So I’d like to take the time today to do just that.

Struggling with your mental health: it’s not all sunshine and rainbows

There’s a reason I use the word ‘struggling‘, and it’s because that’s exactly what it feels like. A constant struggle with your own mind. Doesn’t sound very fun, does it? Well, it’s not. On my better days, I can laugh at myself, and even dismiss some of my ridiculous thoughts. Catch me on a bad day, and you won’t see me laughing.

Even on my good days – no, wait – ESPECIALLY on my good days, I am trying to dodge negativity like a squirrel in traffic. I do not want anything getting in my way or bringing me down. We all have different ways of trying to get through everyday life, but when you’re in the middle of struggling with your mental health too, it can get a little tricky. So, sometimes you have to get a little creative.

The Ugly Truth

Here are just some of the things I do to cope and get through those rough spots. Let me know if you can relate to any of these.

I cuss A lot. Is it always appropriate? No. Do I do it anyway? Absolutely. Throwing a few sentence enhancers into my daily vocabulary always makes me feel better. There are just some moments where ‘gosh darn’ or ‘dang it’ just aren’t going to cut it.
Sometimes I mumble incoherently under my breath. Usually, this happens when I really want to say something but I’m trying really hard to keep myself together. It’s like a semi-private conversation with myself. I do this a lot when I’m home alone and cleaning up behind all of my kids. Haha.
I wait until the last minute to put on pants. Who likes pants, anyway? When I’m at home, I want to be comfortable. This doesn’t mean I want everyone else to think I was just lounging around. So before everyone gets home, I make sure to throw some pants on. It gives them (and me) the illusion that I have my life together.
There are some days that I just don’t feel like doing shit. Of course, I can’t let anyone else know that. How do I accomplish this? Luckily, I work better under pressure, so I laze around until I only have an hour before anyone gets home, then jump up and work my ass off for the last hour. Shhh… what others don’t know won’t hurt them.
Lots and lots of sarcasm and humor. These two are my go-to coping mechanisms. If I can’t find it in myself to throw my own sarcasm and humor out there, I go to Pinterest and share this glorious wealth with others.
Most of my days are spent smiling and trying to ignore everything catching on fire all around me. Sometimes this tactic works, other times, not so much. Eh, I’m only human, right?

My Favorite Phrases

I have a few things that I like to call ‘me-isms’. They’re these little phrases that I’m famous for saying all the time. These phrases tend to come out more often when I’m struggling with my mental health. Is this another coping mechanism? Perhaps.

I’m faking it ’til I make it.
Teamwork makes the dream work.
It is what it is.
Yes, I am weird. No, I don’t care.
Sure, I’m crazy, but in a good way.
Look, I know what I’m talking about, mostly.
I’m running away. I have to go now.
I don’t want to be a responsible adult today.
Whatever works, let’s do that.
Umm, I gotta go. Bye.

It’s Not The End Of The World

I’m sure there are plenty more things my family could come up with that I say, but you get the idea. I am very much into not taking life too seriously. Where is the fun in that? Trust me, there isn’t any, because I wasn’t always this way. I used to think every little thing that went wrong was the end of the world. Until I realized it wasn’t.

Honestly, I believe if I didn’t have these struggles, I might not have figured out half of the things I have. But when you’re struggling with your mental health, in a way, you have to learn these things. I mean, I guess you don’t have to, but if you want to have any kind of quality of life, then you do. The more I’ve learned, the more I want to learn too.

Open Your Eyes

When you start to open your eyes to the possibilities, you begin to see everything in a whole new way. It’s kind of cool, in a way. As much as I’ve learned though, I am not perfect, nor will I ever be. I don’t try to be, either. Nobody is perfect. We all have our flaws in one way or another. I guess we just have to learn to love the ones we can live with and change the ones we can’t.

Is it all really just that simple? Maybe so.

What are some of your quirks or habits? Do you have any ‘isms’ that you say all the time? Share them in the comments, I love hearing about what helps you get through your rough moments. It’s just another way we can all learn from each other.

~ Jess

Reproduced with permission, originally posted here: https://jessisamess.com