Empowering or Incapacitating? Taking Control of Your Mental Health Before It Is Too Late
By Hannah Whitesides, Retreat Leader & Fear Management Specialist for our Company Retreats
Picture this scenario:
You’re genuinely a healthy person, no real immediate threat. However, one day you start to have some pain in your back. You figured it’s because you slept wrong and it’ll go away. But to your surprise, each day you wake up it gets a little worse. It’s gotten to the point that it’s starting to affect your day-to-day responsibilities. What do you do?
The majority of people would tell you to go to the doctor before it gets so debilitating that it’s affecting every aspect of your life and you know it will. You can push it aside and pretend it’s not there but on the inside you know that you’re in pain and it’s only getting worse.
Why is the presence and threat of physical pain treated as far superior to that of mental pain?
What would that story look like if you were beginning to suffer from anxiety or depression? Let’s look at it again:
You’re genuinely a healthy person, no real immediate threat. However, one day you wake up feeling a bit off. Your heart is beating a bit faster, you’re a little shaky and thinking about the rest of the day makes you want to go back to sleep. You figured it’s because you didn’t sleep that well last night and it’ll go away. But to your surprise, each day you wake up it gets a little worse, it feels like you’ve lost the ability to feel motivation or joy. It’s gotten to the point that it’s starting to affect your responsibilities because you can’t imagine how you’re going to get through the day. What do you do?
The brain is a vital organ. It controls our movement, senses, memories, emotion processing, thought and reasoning, vital functions, such as respiration and heart rate, and so much more. So why do we not drop everything and help it when something is clearly wrong. The brain is just like everything else in your body, if something is wrong it’s going to keep getting worse until you make an effort to heal it. Let’s look back at the two scenarios for a moment. If you keep going without getting help in both stories you will inevitably end up operating at a low standard and in a state of constant decline. The only difference is that one is physically debilitating and the other is mentally debilitating.
What you can do when you start to feel off?
Photo by Anh Nguyen on Unsplash
Taking control of your mental health before it becomes incapacitating is a sign of strength, not weakness. Many people associate going to a therapist or counselor means something is wrong with you or they believe that they shouldn’t go because their life isn’t horrifically tragic. Both of these thought processes are wrong. Therapy and counseling are accessible and encouraged to everyone.
If you don’t feel entirely comfortable with that, you’re in luck because those aren’t the only options! You can also look into wellness coaching. There are all kinds of wellness coaches out there who specialize in different things. For example, I am a certified transformational life coach, Sabriya is a certified in the specialities of Life Purpose Coaching, Rational Emotive Behavioral Techniques Coaching, Cognitive Behavioral Coaching, and Happiness Coaching, and Allie is a Feminine Power certified life coach and facilitator. You can easily find one who is the right fit for you. As always, counseling is always an option too for minor to intense mental health struggles.
Personally, I get anxious talking about myself and my life to someone in that type of setting. If you’re like me, consider these alternate options. When I was getting my Transformational Life Coaching certification, I was learning how to help myself as well. I came across so many activities that made me look at things differently and I still use them to this day. So, if you want something like that, take a course! Udemy, Thinkific, and Coursera has amazing courses in just about everything you could think of.
Mental wellness is crucial to your health and the stability of your life. Take action before it’s too late. Do you want your mental health to empower you or incapacitate you? You get to take control.
****
Project Passport is a proactive mental wellness company that aims to bring mental wellness retreats, workshops and other services to company teams. We also help women create joy in their lives every step of the way. To learn more about our company retreats and services, click here. To learn more about our tribe community for women, click here. Our travel retreats will resume in the future as the world reopens.