Feels Like Tonight

Laura Annabelle
Aug 9, 2017 · 4 min read

Standing up for what I believe in which also including myself, is not an easy thing to do as to what it may appear or seem to be for anyone new to this part of the world and learning about what society actually is in this current generation and century.

Particularly for me, I’ve stood by some vitally important things in which have been linked to my passion and purpose. When it comes to the things that I stand up for, are vitally important to me enough to the point like anyone would with anything, to not be ashamed for what we believe in regardless of anything that could prevent anyone from standing up for what they believe in.

To talk about a few things in which I believe in; I would like to start off by listing them here and then going into more depth detail about each one. The things that I believe in very strongly enough that I’d fight for all the way would be: my advocacy for mental health and my mental illnesses, passion for psychology and my belief of a healthier looking lifestyle to every human being who can live their lives more efficiently and benefit by practicing all things such as: mindfulness, gratitude, silencing the mind, meditation, yoga, CBT, DBT, REBT, and any others that contribute and are greatly benefited in the mental health/psychology subject/department of reality.

To me, I believe that everyone can live a life of their own on their own terms. I believe that everyone can truly benefit from all practices of psychology and mental health and live healthier lives. It can truly transform their lives and amaze them by how powerful these new practices and solutions can be and how much they can impact our own individual lives! Psychology and mental health is important. And to add, mental health is just as important as our physical health.

To make a statement here, without our brain, we wouldn’t exist, therefore wouldn’t it make sense to take as much care of our brain as possible to be as healthy as we can be when we allow ourselves to be?

Next is focusing on my own experiences with my mental illnesses. To start off here on this subtopic, I’d like to talk about what mental illness can do to one’s life. Mental illness to me never really came to me as important or rather to say real that I was at all able to understand what it was exactly. But once it first came to my mind during a lesson being taught about mental illness and addiction in my grade 12 gym/health class (April 2014). And after having my first or second real depressive episode in my first year at Conestoga College (Office Administration, General), I came back home and started my recovery on my own.

I’ve been in recovery for about 2 years as of April 25th, 2015 which I’ve been getting some support minus the support from my parents and sister due to the stigma around mental illness. Which also calls for lack of education and much else; but to explain more in detail, everything a human can practice and become a habit and part of their lifestyle in psychology and mental health. Since I started my recovery in April 2015, I’ve progressed with a lot of success and achievements, which I have only celebrated on my end without any real celebration with friends and family due to the stigma around it.

And since I started my recovery, I’ve reached and passed a depression relapse which was super hard to survive. Which also adds to this discussion; suicide… Being suicidal is not at all what anyone of society thinks or believes it is to be defined and labeled to be. Mental illness and suicide need to be talked about. Particularly suicide is a sensitive yet hard topic to talk about it but it must be spoken openly and with no shame.

It all takes time, patience, commitment, strength, control, and everything else that it takes to succeed in beating the stigma around mental illness. To me, it’s been quite the journey and struggle for me but I’ve become a long way with that and am still learning better ways to act yet overall live with the stigma until the day arrives when it has been removed from our society.

To end off here, I’m standing tall and proof like millions of others who are known as “stigma fighters” which is an incredible thing to accomplish in life for how truly challenging and almost nearly impossible yet millions have made that possible, to each one of us, thank you and be proud of yourself and all that you’ve accomplished and what is to come in your future!

Laura Annabelle

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I'm just someone who believes that she is extra-ordinary, is trying to figure out her life while living with many mental illnesses! #staystrong