Realizing Mental Health in Yourself
When being born into this world there is no way to know if you will have mental health issues. We don't just take our first breath and realize we will be affected by mental health. It can come at any time in life. You can live your life not knowing that one day you may just wake up and know something is different within yourself. You just don't know what is different. You can pretend like their is nothing wrong, try to hide the conflict within yourself, but there is nothing to be ashamed of when it comes to mental health.
Mental health issues ar no joke, they are nothing to take lightly. Yeah there are people that believe it is all in your head, but the more we find out about mental health the more we realize that this is a very serious diease. There are so many different illnesses that come with this disease from anxiety, depression and bipolar disorder just to name a few. If people would just take the time to understand the illness, what it does to those who have it and realize that it does not just go away. If everyone understood we could definitely save lives because so many dealing with mental health end up taking their own life because they feel alone, abandoned and ashamed of the person they are and how others look at them.
I myself grew up not knowing a thing about mental health. I never sat around thinking that I would one day be a person struggling with a mental health illness. I didn't say to myself "well at the age of 32 my life is going to change drastically. I will be a completely different person with a serious health issue trying to live my life with a husband, kids, full time job along with everything else going on in a 32 years old life at that time." This disease has a way of showing itself at anytime, you don't pick and chose when and where mental health issues will begin.
In March 2013, I woke up like every other day. I felt a little light headed, stuffy and head pressure. I thought to myself here comes a sinus infection. Since it was about Spring and it was time for everything to start blooming and fly around in the air. I had no idea at the time how much my life was about to change. I went to the doctor and got out on antibiotics, nose spray and an antihistamine. A week later I was still not feeling any better I started feeling like something was stuck in my throat, I couldn't sleep at night because I felt like I could not breath, I felt like my throats was closing up. Night after night I would just pace back and forth feeling panic, not knowing what to do and just keeping it all to myself.
Finally days later I went back to the doctor, they put me on a new antibiotic and said it would work really fast because it was a stronger dose. My nights were still the same but I thought to myself "Just let the new medication have time to work." A couple days later, exhausted and still feeling horrible I had to drive to a meeting downtown. On the way home I got light headed, couldn't breath, heart racing and started to blackout. I pulled over, calmed myself down and headed straight to an Urgent care where they did an EKG. They found nothing, so they checked my oxygen and found it was great, and then checked my throats and found no swelling and an open airway. This is the first time I heard about a panic attack. From that moment on my life would change forever, however I had no idea how much.
I went home and read about panic attacks. Looked at the different ways to work through these attacks. So I started doing different exercises. When I felt one coming on I would calm my breathing, pace back and forth and try to focus on something other than myself. This helped a little, but at the time I was still very ill with a sinus infection. So I went up to my room and that is where I stayed every day trying not to get out of bed so that I would not have to deal with anything or any one. I remember on a Sunday waking up, feeling like my throats was completely closing and being rushed to the ER because I freaked out and panicked so bad I couldn't even keep my balance. Once at the ER they did an x-ray to check my throat. I told them exactly how I felt and what was going on and this is when I was introduced to Lorazepam. This is the first time they were telling me I had anxiety, depression and panic attacks.
I had no idea and this is the day that my whole life changed forever. This is the day I realized I would never be the same person I was before. From that day forward there was so much I would need to learn about mental health. I would need to understand what it was and how to cope with my new daily life. It would be a long road with many ups and downs, many curve balls, many rights and wrongs and hopefully one day realizing I am just a person like every one else and just because I have any illness doesn't make me less of a person. It just means that I am a unique person in my own way, I may be different from others, but I am still me and I was given a life to live and I was gonna live that life.
~No matter your struggles....You were given a chance at life....So live that life to the fullest~
Mental health issues ar no joke, they are nothing to take lightly. Yeah there are people that believe it is all in your head, but the more we find out about mental health the more we realize that this is a very serious diease. There are so many different illnesses that come with this disease from anxiety, depression and bipolar disorder just to name a few. If people would just take the time to understand the illness, what it does to those who have it and realize that it does not just go away. If everyone understood we could definitely save lives because so many dealing with mental health end up taking their own life because they feel alone, abandoned and ashamed of the person they are and how others look at them.
I myself grew up not knowing a thing about mental health. I never sat around thinking that I would one day be a person struggling with a mental health illness. I didn't say to myself "well at the age of 32 my life is going to change drastically. I will be a completely different person with a serious health issue trying to live my life with a husband, kids, full time job along with everything else going on in a 32 years old life at that time." This disease has a way of showing itself at anytime, you don't pick and chose when and where mental health issues will begin.
In March 2013, I woke up like every other day. I felt a little light headed, stuffy and head pressure. I thought to myself here comes a sinus infection. Since it was about Spring and it was time for everything to start blooming and fly around in the air. I had no idea at the time how much my life was about to change. I went to the doctor and got out on antibiotics, nose spray and an antihistamine. A week later I was still not feeling any better I started feeling like something was stuck in my throat, I couldn't sleep at night because I felt like I could not breath, I felt like my throats was closing up. Night after night I would just pace back and forth feeling panic, not knowing what to do and just keeping it all to myself.
Finally days later I went back to the doctor, they put me on a new antibiotic and said it would work really fast because it was a stronger dose. My nights were still the same but I thought to myself "Just let the new medication have time to work." A couple days later, exhausted and still feeling horrible I had to drive to a meeting downtown. On the way home I got light headed, couldn't breath, heart racing and started to blackout. I pulled over, calmed myself down and headed straight to an Urgent care where they did an EKG. They found nothing, so they checked my oxygen and found it was great, and then checked my throats and found no swelling and an open airway. This is the first time I heard about a panic attack. From that moment on my life would change forever, however I had no idea how much.
I went home and read about panic attacks. Looked at the different ways to work through these attacks. So I started doing different exercises. When I felt one coming on I would calm my breathing, pace back and forth and try to focus on something other than myself. This helped a little, but at the time I was still very ill with a sinus infection. So I went up to my room and that is where I stayed every day trying not to get out of bed so that I would not have to deal with anything or any one. I remember on a Sunday waking up, feeling like my throats was completely closing and being rushed to the ER because I freaked out and panicked so bad I couldn't even keep my balance. Once at the ER they did an x-ray to check my throat. I told them exactly how I felt and what was going on and this is when I was introduced to Lorazepam. This is the first time they were telling me I had anxiety, depression and panic attacks.
I had no idea and this is the day that my whole life changed forever. This is the day I realized I would never be the same person I was before. From that day forward there was so much I would need to learn about mental health. I would need to understand what it was and how to cope with my new daily life. It would be a long road with many ups and downs, many curve balls, many rights and wrongs and hopefully one day realizing I am just a person like every one else and just because I have any illness doesn't make me less of a person. It just means that I am a unique person in my own way, I may be different from others, but I am still me and I was given a life to live and I was gonna live that life.
~No matter your struggles....You were given a chance at life....So live that life to the fullest~
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