Emotional health
Hi all, big thanks to everyone here. This is my 4th day posting and the benefits and support have been amazing.
Today has been an emotional day so far. My daughter had to come home from school because she couldnt stop crying. When i first got the phone call i went through a gamut of emotions - worry whether she was ok, guilt that it might have anything to do with me, panic that she has a problem with depression. After getting back home and having a long talk, i think its just a case of 15 year old teenage girl stress and feeling overwhelmed by everything in her personal life - PSATS, friends, boyfriend, relationship with dad, school. The interesting thing is that i felt so capable to support her largely because of so much i have learned here over the last 4 days. I had been preparing a wellness toolbox and daily maintenance plan for myself and it struck me how important this is for everyone to know. Whether my daughter has a problem with depression or not, she can benefit from developing a plan for days when she feels sad and learn about all the different wellness tools which keep our physical and emotional health in check. Obviously this is not always enough but looking back now at my own upbringing, i realize my mother struggled with depression but her way of dealing was to just sort of martyr herself to being miserable, and my father was an alcoholic so my learned behaviour for dealing with stress was over-drinking for many years. Now i need to change that and find other coping mechanisms. How great would it be to have had those in place before!
Humans are not supposed to feel happy all the time, we will sometimes feel sad or overwhelmed and learning how to process these feelings without numbing them, which essentially just hides them until they become a huger problem, is essential. I wish there wasn't such a stigma behind the words "mental health". It makes people immediately defensive because they don't want to be labelled as mentally ill. But our mental health is just as much of a balancing act as our physical health and should be thought of in the same way. We have to nurture and protect it.
Anyway, i feel renewed in my choice not to drink because i want to model healthy reactions to stress for my kids and it feels great to feel empowered with knowledge. At 4 days i still have mountains to travel but i am feeling hopeful.