We all suffer from time to time but there are days when people consistently feel down and start to feel low on their life, and when people become really down and unable to focus and function properly this is often a case of Depression or Anxiety. I personally have suffered with depression, anxiety and panic attacks for around 7 or so years. For me personally when I was around 18 or so I was battling through year 12 as I was putting to much pressure on myself and was dealing with the external pressures of getting a great ATAR ( end of year 12 score), it didn't take much to set my depression off. Combined with the stress of Year 12, I was also drinking alcohol quite heavily and this triggered my mood off dramatically. I started to deal with self harm, suicidal idealisation and significant weight loss. One thing that I would highly recommend and something that helped me significantly was to go straight away and see a GP & Psychologist.
Therapy was amazing for me and really helped me to be able to speak about my emotions and I learnt about cognitive behavioural therapy as well as other techniques to manage my emotions. I personally found being around my loved ones such as family members and friends incredibly rewarding as this would always enlighten my mood and make me feel good about myself. I also found that with my depression I would lose interest in things I loved doing such as playing Footy as well as exercising and lost passion in other areas of life. It took quite a long time before I started feeling better about myself again, I think this was to do with lack of confidence and also the illness itself. I think for me taking pressure off myself really helped as well as trying to focus on things one day at a time, whether that be going for a walk, run, or a kick of the footy or some backyard cricket to keep my occupied. I really do think that I was able to maintain a strong sense of will and desire to get through it all, particularly in my darkness days and fortunately I was able to. I personally still feel I suffer from it, and I am medicated, but I do make sure I help myself every day. Some of the things that really help me are playing sport such as Footy, Tennis and Cricket as well as Golf. I also find that because I am able to get back into things I love doing this has really helped me, such as comedy and acting.
It's important to focus on yourself as well as your loved ones as they can always help you through the tough time. I also want to share my compassion and reach out to those that are struggling. I am currently an ambassador at headspace a mental health organisation that resides in Australia. I am hoping to get training for mental health first aid as well as being able to do talks to schools and sporting clubs about mental health and how to get through it.
I would like to offer my help to anyone on steemit as well as I feel I really can help you, so if you need someone to speak to or some advice on mental health, please let me know!
Hope you are all going well
Lots of love, Henry