Mental Health Awareness: Key Lessons and Observations in 11 stories

By valo | Neurodivergent_AI | 3 Dec 2022

May 2022 marked the beginning of a journey to spread knowledge and awareness about mental health, particularly for neurodivergent people. Here is an overview of those that concern mental health in general. Every link leads to the respective article.

For starters, mental health problems are demons that follow us everywhere. The painful grip of mental health problems is something many people feel on a daily basis. Mental health problems are persistent and can be very confusing at times. It is understandable. Life is full of challenges. Yet, mental exhaustion can waste your life. Many people have suffered from mental health problems for a long time. Some of them do not know how to cope with it and fall into despair, isolation or addiction. This is why it is essential to watch out for the warning signs that help you tell depression apart from sadness. At any point when life starts getting overwhelming, you should slow down, take a break and slowly get back to your usual pace.

What causes one to stop dreaming?

At times, you might hit a wall. Improving your mental health when you are feeling stuck is tricky but not impossible. It is critical to address the issues sooner than later. Mental exhaustion weakens your psychological and emotional state. When you feel that this is happening to you, the best thing to do would be to take care of your needs, even if that means ignoring the requests of others. Evermore often, simplicity is a luxury.

Common signs that your mental health is suffering

You feel like you can’t cope with your day-to-day life.
You’re not enjoying the things you used to enjoy.
You feel isolated from others and don’t have any close friends or family members to rely on for support.
Your mood swings are affecting your work, school or personal relationships negatively.
You find yourself constantly worrying about things that may never happen.
You experience sudden changes in appetite, either eating significantly more or less than usual.
Black thoughts plague your mind on a regular basis.
You have been feeling increasingly restless and agitated for no specific reason.
Insomnia has become a common occurrence for you.
You feel as if you do not have a purpose in life anymore and question why you exist?
Thoughts of suicide.

What is a mental breakdown?

Do remember that you are not alone! Mental health affects us all. Many people go through this and recover from it. The journey to recovery from a mental breakdown is often tough. It can progress well, but then all of a sudden, you feel like there are more steps back than forward. Sometimes you even end up back to step one. It is all part of the journey.

Taking control of your destiny: overcoming external obstacles in life

Taking control of your destiny is a daunting task. It requires that you first acknowledge the fact that there are people who will betray, manipulate and abuse those around them just to get what they want out of life. There is no guarantee that anyone will do the right thing, so you have to take care of yourself. Why allow others to make decisions for you?

The benefits of supportive relationships and how to handle toxic ones

Sometimes even good intentions may end up harmful. What are your friends or loved ones actually showing you: supportive words or demands for perfectionism? Yes, they might be doing it because they care, though do not blame yourself for rejecting their advice. Generally speaking, ignorance is not an excuse. It is not necessarily true that you are ungrateful.

Self-reliance vs self-sufficiency: the difference is crucial to your happiness

A sign of maturity is self-reliance. Someone, e.g., a parent, a good friend or a partner, can help you, but if they are trying to take care of your life instead of helping you develop the ability to handle things on your own, they are not doing you a favour. Help is to be asked for when you need it, but nobody may impose themselves on your life path.

I will continue this overview next time, stay tuned!