People with mental health problems often get labelled more than most. People see you as the person who ‘has anxiety’ or ‘has OCD’ which is rather unnecessary.
I sometimes think that people with mental health problems also see themselves as ‘being’ their problem. I know I have does this so many times. I think that I am anxiety and there is nothing else to me as sometimes it completely takes over. It consumes me so feels like it’s in control of me. Once someone said to me that once you tell someone they have a mental illness, they begin to link everything to it. Since thinking about this, I have found myself guilty of doing this. I don’t always realise what is linked to my anxiety and what is not.
This really has made me question who I am. I used to think that we were our mind or thoughts but my experiences have changed this opinion. My mind is riddled with anxiety and thoughts filled with some very dark things, but I know this isn’t who I am. However, our thoughts are what formulates opinions, preferences, actions which is what I think defines part of a person.
After quite a lot of consideration, I still haven’t managed to construct an opinion with a valid argument that contains no conflictions. Whenever I come to a conclusion, I manage to pick apart my own argument and find a flaw in it. Are we out thoughts? Our actions? Our opinions? I don’t think I will every really find out who I am because everyone changed throughout their lives so I am going to morph into many different characters, I expect.
Mental illness has changed me. I used to be quite a loud, outgoing person who was always ready for a challenge but now, I’m quite the opposite. I’ve become very quiet and introverted who struggles with everyday things like getting out of bed. However, it has also changed me in a rather positive way. I have become much more hard working and academic as I want to prove to not only myself, but others also, that anxiety won’t hold me back from what I want to do. I have also had a change of heart with career path due to my experience of mental health care. I want to become a clinical psychologist so that other people don’t have to have the same experiences of mental illness that I have had.
All I really know and have come to accept is that I am not my mental illness. I have accepted that I do struggle with some things but this isn’t a flaw in my personality. Although I felt controlled by it for a very long time, it does not define me which I think is the key to recovery: accepting it but fighting it.
I sometimes think that people with mental health problems also see themselves as ‘being’ their problem. I know I have does this so many times. I think that I am anxiety and there is nothing else to me as sometimes it completely takes over. It consumes me so feels like it’s in control of me. Once someone said to me that once you tell someone they have a mental illness, they begin to link everything to it. Since thinking about this, I have found myself guilty of doing this. I don’t always realise what is linked to my anxiety and what is not.
This really has made me question who I am. I used to think that we were our mind or thoughts but my experiences have changed this opinion. My mind is riddled with anxiety and thoughts filled with some very dark things, but I know this isn’t who I am. However, our thoughts are what formulates opinions, preferences, actions which is what I think defines part of a person.
After quite a lot of consideration, I still haven’t managed to construct an opinion with a valid argument that contains no conflictions. Whenever I come to a conclusion, I manage to pick apart my own argument and find a flaw in it. Are we out thoughts? Our actions? Our opinions? I don’t think I will every really find out who I am because everyone changed throughout their lives so I am going to morph into many different characters, I expect.
Mental illness has changed me. I used to be quite a loud, outgoing person who was always ready for a challenge but now, I’m quite the opposite. I’ve become very quiet and introverted who struggles with everyday things like getting out of bed. However, it has also changed me in a rather positive way. I have become much more hard working and academic as I want to prove to not only myself, but others also, that anxiety won’t hold me back from what I want to do. I have also had a change of heart with career path due to my experience of mental health care. I want to become a clinical psychologist so that other people don’t have to have the same experiences of mental illness that I have had.
All I really know and have come to accept is that I am not my mental illness. I have accepted that I do struggle with some things but this isn’t a flaw in my personality. Although I felt controlled by it for a very long time, it does not define me which I think is the key to recovery: accepting it but fighting it.