Happy Tuesday! As May is quickly approaching and is mental health month, I want to talk about this topic because it means a lot to me. I’m not very shy about my struggle with anxiety and I could preach the mental health benefits of exercise, therapy and meditation all day. Yoga has been an instrumental piece in my journey, which you can read about here. It taught me that I need to be proactive in my journey and I need to invest in my own mental well-being and not solely rely on a prescription from my doctor to make everything better.
By no means am I advocating against anti-depressants. There was a time in my life when I needed them and I know many others who are/were in the same boat. At the age of 19, I thought, “If I just take this pill everything will start to feel better.” And it did help a lot. But a pill can’t substitute for the inner work you have to do. Medicine can’t completely shut down your inner battles and struggles; it can help you on your journey, but it’s not the end all be all.
When I started taking anti-depressants I undoubtedly felt better and when I added in a yoga practice, I felt ten times better. About a year into my yoga practice, I felt ready to come off of my prescription with the OK from my doctor. Over the past four years or so since I stopped taking them, I’ve had highs and lows in my struggle with anxiety. I’ve added in meditation, cleaned up my sleeping habits (I was such a night owl who only got a few hours!) and became more honest with the people in my life when I was struggling and allowed myself to get vulnerable enough so they could be there for me. Picking up these habits diminished my anxiety and taught me to slow down and check in with myself when I felt my anxiety was ramping up again.
I’m a book nerd who loves honest writers that are open, vulnerable and unashamed of sharing their stories. I love thoughtful podcasts that feature smart and honest minds. After I graduated college and had more free time to read and listen to podcasts, one common trail that I began to identify is that so many of these people I looked up to and admired had gone through therapy, and they were not shy in explaining how it benefited them. I constantly found myself surprised by how many of these people who seemingly “had it all” had gone through therapy and sang its praises.
It took a few years for that to sink in for me. One part of anxiety is that it can make you question, what do you have to be anxious about? I’ve felt that a lot. I have a college degree, a good job, a loving family, a supportive boyfriend and part-time yoga gig — why do I still experience intense pangs of anxiety? Through the end of 2018, I felt like my anxiety was manageable, but some of the lows still felt really hard. After about three years of letting the idea of therapy float around, I finally decided it was time to do it. I thought, if all these successful people love it, there must be something there.
And man, they were right. If I thought that pre-therapy my anxiety was manageable, I am on a completely different wavelength since going. I found a therapist I really liked and felt seen by, and I was able to open up to her. She helped me walk through my internal battles with kindness and patience. She understood that anxiety is a different battle every day and she gave me tools to help me. If there’s one thing I learned, it’s that it feels good to get things off your chest and that’s it’s much easier to do so with a professional that holds no judgement or preconceived ideas of you/your life experiences. I learned that therapy is for more people than those who have faced impossible situations and heartache, rather, truly everyone can benefit.
If you’ve ever considered therapy, I can’t recommend it enough. Therapy taught me how to identify my thought patterns and cope with my anxiety in ways I didn’t know how to before. It was the perfect supplement to yoga/exercise and meditation, which my therapist encouraged as well. After going regularly for a few months, I feel happier than I have in a very long time. I am not seeing my therapist regularly (because I really feel that much better!) but she and I both discussed that I can make an appointment whenever I feel like I need some extra support.
Therapy is an amazing resource that helps us navigate life. I know it is privilege to go as it can be costly and there are some more affordable resources here. It’s slightly nerve-wracking posting this, but I feel that it’s extremely important to be honest because those who shared their stories inspired me to go, and it ended up being one of the best decisions I’ve made for myself.
Sending love,
Morgan