May = Mental Health Month


For those who may not know, May is Mental Health Month.  I personally believe that a strong connection to one's own emotions can make you a much more productive and happy individual.  If you asked me about that even just a few years ago, I think I would have had a different opinion.  I'd like to take the opportunity during this month of May to share some of my own personal journey that I've been going through.  I've mentioned briefly that I have spinal surgery in November of 2019.  Before that, I had been dealing with stifling chronic pain from two herniated discs for about two years - while I was a full-time student working towards a masters degree at Tufts and also working three part-time jobs.

I've always been someone who is happier when I'm busy, and I tend to overload myself and just push through it.  Like the graphic above shows, I was part of the 52% of Americans that would just 'grin and bear it'. Unfortunately, (or perhaps fortunately for this aspect of life?) this life event of chronic illness forced me to change.  I will share excerpts from some things I wrote during my worst times during this month of May in the hopes that some might find it relatable or even just cathartic to hear that others struggle with self-doubt.  I've always been a big supporter of encouraging my friends to seek professional health when their mental health is suffering, but I felt shame myself when I first started to see a therapist myself.  Talking about my struggle was a necessity and helped me get through some of my darkest times.  I highly encourage everyone to seek out a safe place to speak when they don't know what is next.

I want to leave some resources and statistics here in this first post so that readers can do some research on their own if they so desire.  An organization called Mental Health America (MHA) provides what they call 'tools to thrive' here that can help everyone improve their mental health and increase their resiliency.  As I've written before, the lessons from my positive psychology and resilience course were helpful in the way that they gave a name to many of the negative habits that can sneak up on you.  I encourage you to re-visit my blog posts on the topic if it interests you.  You can find them here, here, here and here. 

Some stats that you may have not been aware of (provided by the National Council for Behavioral Health):
  • 1 in 5 adults experience a mental illness
  • Nearly 1 in 25 (10 million) adults in America live with serious mental illness
  • One half of all chronic mental illness begins by the age of 14; three quarters by the age of 24
  • Approximately 10.2 million adults have co-occuring mental health and addiction disorders
Stay tuned for more personal shares + feel free to reach out to me with comments and questions!

-Vicky

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