Who Are You In Spite of Your Mental Health Issues?

So many of us hit up Twitter, Facebook, or Instagram just to say “I have mental health issues,” but what does that really mean?

It is entirely dependent on your situation, and so while many people can commiserate with the struggle they don’t necessarily have the same symptoms, so let’s shove that aside for just one minute because we deserve to.

Every day for me is different. This week I took two days off, one to get some much-needed sleep and the other to get my nails done and my house clean.

I spent a lot of years on this website trying to perfect it, outside of mental health issues doesn’t apply to me, because if I am honest, this whole website was about my mental health issues.

Every day for 5 years has been about building something outside my brain that explains who I am and I have done it so this week I took 2 weeks off.

I am fun, and funny, silly, and goofy outside of mental health issues, I am told I am someone who at least tries to remain accountable for my actions, but I also push other people to be as well.

I worked really hard and will continue to do so to project authenticity, I didn’t for instance, clean my house and there are a lot of reasons for that that I do not wish to discuss in the open but the reasons are all mental health based – and not necessarily my own.

Waking up to this blog every day gives me a reason to keep fighting for control over my life and that’s why I ask who you are outside that which is holding you back. When we can remember who we are outside of our struggles sometimes we can find something we didn’t know was missing.

Mental health issues can be overwhelming and we can forget how strong we are, we can forget the abuse we experience isn’t our fault and that’s because abuse and mental health issues go hand in hand.

For years I thought I was the problem – lazy, selfish, vindictive, no, just tired.

Dangerous is a word that’s been attached to me, not because I am but because I have spent years letting people outside of me define me.

Outside of mental health issues, I am an:

• An artist
• an author
• a blogger
• a friend
• a sister
• a child of a mother
• a teacher
• a patient
• a leader
• a learner
• a student

I am many things outside of my mental health issues, what are you?

Sending all my love,

Devon J Hall

If you have thoughts you’d like to add about this post, please leave a message, and let’s talk about them in the comments below

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