Navigating mental health: a personal journey

WHEN I first started the blog I had the punchline "It really does" because your mental health does matter.

Mental health struggles knows no race, gender, ethnicity or religion and can be debilitating if left untreated for long periods of time. Admitting that you have a problem is the first step. You could be masking your symptoms by dabbling in things to distract yourself like drinking alcohol or taking pills.

Masking depressive disorders and anxiety disorders are impossible. Keeping busy so you forget is also not healthy because you are not addressing the actual problem. I find it extremely hard to just have a day where I do nothing. I can't watch a movie and lie on the couch because I feel miserable and I feel as though my mind needs to work overtime to block out what I'm feeling.

There are many people that suffer with mental health disorders and although trivial to you, it's magnanimous for them. Emotions can't be controlled overnight and it takes work to actually control your thoughts and realise that your thoughts are just thoughts. A thought is just a thought until you act on it. If you tell yourself you are going to have a gloomy day, that's exactly what will happen.

Blame

Overthinking is a wonderful hobby practised by a lot of people. We tend to over analyse people's behaviour and their movement in our lives. Most of the time we blame ourselves for their selfishness. Has the thought ever occurred to you that maybe that person is just selfish? The future is not our problem and if you believe in God you would know that your path is predetermined and planned out already.

A person's actions towards us cannot be controlled. However, your response to their actions can be. We can't take everything personally because sometimes, the problem is not you. There are a ton of people who can relate to what I'm saying and as much as something may hurt or disappoint you, there are lessons within it that you learn.

Giving a depressed person a gym membership card is not going to fix their problem. Them showing up to the gym can. It's all about you putting in the effort for a better quality of life. In my personal experience, the thought of doing exercise is not the first to come to mind. When you suffer from severe depression, getting out of bed is a victory of some sort. Obviously, you feel absolutely terrible and most times can't get out of bed. With that said, even though it may be hard to drag yourself out of bed - do it.

Movement helps because when you move, you move from one attitude to the next. If you sit there and ponder on your thoughts for hours, you are manifesting those feelings and worsening the situation.

Burnt out

Being burnt out from long work days of is another huge factor within the depressive disorder checklist. Constantly working and not having a proper rest can contribute to a wonderful mirage of terrible feelings and can lead you to a full on mental breakdown.

Annual leave is there for a reason. You don't have to wait for December to have a break. Talking about it is important and necessary, especially to your loved ones. Opening up about how you feel lightens the load because when you say it out loud that feeling in your chest starts to ease. It's a taboo topic in many households and sometimes the older folk may not completely understand, but that's okay.

You don't need an answer from anyone, just some reassurance. From my experience, there are many things I would have done differently but it's already done. I have to live with my actions and be kind to myself. You need to be kind to yourself. If nobody told you today, it's okay if you don't feel like a big ball of energy always bouncing in the room. Even helium balloons fall after a few hours after reaching the ceiling.

Your healing is at your own pace. You owe it to yourself to live a life that means more than the disease. Your mental wellbeing controls everything in your life because it's your mental state to handle life, love, family, work and whatever else we deal with on a daily basis. When things are not okay, we need to be able to cope with that be it by talking to a close friend or seeing a doctor.

Mind

Your mind controls every aspect of your life. What you think, you become. So why do we put our mental health on the backburner? Is it because of shame? Stigma? Is it because you don't know what to do about it? If you feel depressed, you are not going to enjoy life nor will you be able to fully embrace what you have.

It's such a pity we feel this way because we have so much to be grateful for. Think of your cellphone. When the battery is low, the functionality of the phone dips – the device knows what takes up its energy and switches to a mode whereby those functions are not available. Ground-breaking right?

Our phones are made to have those functionalities, so why can't we condition our brain in the same way? Our methods of recharging are different. Some people exercise, others paint and sometimes people just rest when they need to. If you keep leaving yourself on 4% battery life, your functionality will be hindered. If you continuously wait for your battery to decline, you are most likely going to have a mental breakdown. It's time to lift the curtain on depression and it's time to claim your life back. Don't you think?

Kamini Rambridge, a sales representative by profession, provides personal insights on mental health wellness through her blog, Mental(it)y Matters, which she launched in 2023. Her initiative not only aims to create awareness but also serves as a therapeutic outlet for her own experiences. Visit https://kamzrambridge.wixsite.com/mentalitymatters

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