tales of Suchita

I love taking e-courses. Anytime I have a question – why do we go to war, what is gender, how to write superhero characters – I go onto edX and find an e-course. So, when I was trying to come up with themes I would like to talk about on mental health, I obviously went onto the platform to find an e-course on the subject.

What I found were courses on psychology or stress management, and neither sounded all that appealing to me. That is when it struck me that though most of us know the importance of talking about mental health, we don’t really talk about it in the everyday sense. We do talk about it when there’s been a breakdown, but not what to do on a regular basis to ensure its health.

My first introduction to the concept of mental health was seeing people close to me unable to deal with their grief. My own introduction to the working of my mind was when I was 22 and on the cusp of battling years of conditioning of what I’m supposed to look like. That has led to body image issues I have been fighting for almost a decade and I’m still not convinced if I have overcome it completely. It’s hard. Especially, as a friend said, “you can have all the confidence in the world but when someone close to you keeps whittling away at the confidence, with a remark here and a taunt there, what can you do but start to buy their version?”

The thing about mental health is, we mostly think of it in extremes: a panic attack, a nervous breakdown, depression. But these issues take years to build and it can start with a simple habit of not speaking when you have something to say. You don’t need to suffer from something extreme for your mental health to become a priority. You don’t need to brush away the feeling that your brain is disintegrating since your PPT is not coming right and it’s a small everyday thing and of course you’re fine, you don’t need to pause and work on what you’re feeling.

When it comes to our mind and emotions, we all become ostriches, preferring to bury our heads in the sand, than to dealing with it like adults. And I think I get why it’s so difficult. All our lives we have been asked to be strong, to carpe diem the crap out of an opportunity. We have never been taught how to pause, reflect, and then act.

So here I am, to talk about everyday mental health. Let’s begin with the basic – what does mental health mean to me. I thought I’d find a visual representation to answer that question:

I see it as me driving down the road called life. I know I’m okay when I’m in the driver’s seat and I know I need to pause and think when I feel I have given up the control of the steering wheel to someone or something else.

I think it’s important to reflect on the answer so it can become a rallying point for you – an anchor when you feel you’re adrift. So tell me:

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This post is part of Blogchatter’s CauseAChatter