More Awareness = Less Shame

May is Mental Health Awareness Month.

The goal of Mental Health Awareness Month is to raise awareness about mental illness and to reduce the stigma that surrounds it.

I’m no stranger to mental health challenges. I’ve worked with depression and anxiety my entire adult life.

When I was first diagnosed, my doctor suggested that I go on an anti-depressant. I wanted to punch him in the face. After all, I wasn’t that bad.

So I resisted medication because I thought I could “will” myself happy. But there I was, “white-knuckling” it through my day…which turned into weeks… which turned into months. A year later, at my annual physical, I was advised to consider medication again. I relented. I was tired of feeling so damn bad for no good reason.

The medication gave me relief, but it came with a big heaping of shame. I was petrified that people would find out that I was on an anti-depressant. I know how I viewed people on anti-depressants. I considered them weak and faulty somehow. I considered myself weak and faulty and I lived with this mindset for 20 years.

Then I started to read more about how the mind works and how chemical imbalances occur and sometimes it takes medication to balance it out. NAMI (National Alliance on Mental Illness) and their partners also started to raise awareness about Mental Health. The more I learned, the more I realized that I was not the only one and that mental illness is not a character flaw. It’s a condition that needs treated.

For many years now, I have shared my experience with depression and feel no shame in admitting that I have depression and anxiety. And I definitely don’t feel ashamed of doing what I have to do to take care of myself nor should anyone else.