Mental.

Hi guys! I decided to title this post “It’s Okay” because truth be told, I’ve been having a tough couple of weeks. Almost everything has felt like a struggle to me. I first decided to create this page to openly talk about the ups and downs of life. I wanted to let people know that it is OKAY and NORMAL to struggle. However, I’ve been feeling unnecessary pressure that I put on myself about my blog. I had this grand plan for how I wanted to run my site. I had posts planned, content saved, and strategic ways of how I was going to run a “successful” mental health blog. After the first couple weeks in, I can’t help but feel overwhelmed with the up keep that it takes to have engaged followers and continue to grow a follower base. Because, hey, that’s what makes a site successful: your follower base. But I’ve found that the pressure of needing to post everyday to keep followers engaged has been taking a toll on my mental health. I’m constantly feeling like I should do this or I should do that. I began to think that maybe I started this blog too soon in my mental health journey. I didn’t post for almost a week straight on my blog’s Instagram because I thought it would be almost hypocritical of me to preach good metal health when I didn’t feel like I was in a positive spot. I began to feel like a failure. A couple days ago I was in a session with my therapist when it suddenly clicked in my head and I realized that I’m doing this blog for me, not for followers or for the “clout.” Yes, followers are amazing and I want to be able to connect with people, but having a set schedule to post and overly planned content is inorganic to me. That’s not me. I want to post when I have a message or when I’m feeling something. I realized that the purpose of my site isn’t to ONLY preach good mental health; it’s to talk about and share when I’m feeling down. I want to normalize talking about when you feel depressed or anxious, not ignore it and keep posting like everything’s okay.

SO, I wanted to take some time to remind you that it’s OKAY not to post every day. It’s OKAY to feel over whelmed. It’s OKAY to post a lot and then take some time. It’s OKAY to run your blog or site how you want to. It’s OKAY to do what’s best for your mental health. It’s OKAY to talk about your feelings.

Right now, I’m feeling a little frustrated. I feel like I’m having difficulty writing out how I actually feel. Along with depression and anxiety, I struggle with ADHD and my mind is scattered frequently. I often have trouble communicating how I feel and putting it into actual words. Sometimes I feel like I can’t even speak correctly and I end up jumbling all my words together and it sounding like I just had a stroke… hopefully you can understand what I’m actually trying to say here.

This week I want to challenge my readers to tell yourself that it’s OKAY when you start having a bad thought or start thinking negatively about yourself. Take a deep breath, tell yourself it’s okay, and remember your worth.

Thank you so much for taking the time to read!! I hope everyone has a wonderful weekend!

Hi guys! Thank you so much for taking time our of your day to read! I just wanted to give a (not so) little introduction to the blog, “Mental.” and tell you guys a little about myself and what I hope to achieve with this blog!

The topic of mental health is very close to my heart. Ever since I was 13 or 14 years-old I’ve struggled with anxiety and depression. Of course, at the time I had no idea that was what I was actually experiencing. I was acting out, drinking, smoking, trying to get boys’ attention, etc. I’d do Anything to not feel the way I was feeling. When I started driving, I began skipping school because of the anxiety that came with it. When I look back at my time in high school, I can’t even remember one week straight where I didn’t feel that stomach dropping feeling of doom. Sometimes I would think, “how or why did I end up like this?” I felt hopeless, lost, confused and worst of all, no self-love. It was ugly, it was dark, and I’m definitely skimming over all the super deep stuff (I may go into detail in a separate post one day.) Thankfully, my parents began to recognize that I was struggling and sent me to a therapist. Let me tell you… THERAPY SAVED MY LIFE. It’s funny because I remember being so embarrassed to be in high school and having to check out for so many “doctor appointments” to go see my therapist weekly. Some how I made it out of the darkness and began to see a future for myself. I decided I wanted to help people like me cope and get through their darkness too. When I say this, I’m not saying I’m always and completely cured from my anxiety and depression. It is definitely a struggle some days for me to even get out of bed or to go to the “fun” party and socialize. I struggle with depression relapse which is basically a reoccurrence of depression, however, going to therapy has helped me gain the coping skills I need in order to not spiral down into a full depressive episode.

I’m telling you all this because it is so important to talk about your mental health. I hope by coming forward about my struggles that you, too, will want to seek help or even just talk to someone about what you’re going through. I am not a licensed professional (yet), but I am always here if anyone has questions or wants any advice that I can give through my own personal experience with anxiety and depression.

I am creating “Mental.” as a creative and safe space for people to learn and talk about all thing’s mental health. With this, I hope to achieve not only spreading the word about mental health, but to also spark a conversation about mental health struggles. Sometimes talking about mental health and our struggles is well, blah… so my goal is to talk about it in a fun (as fun as it could possibly be) and fresh way. I will be posting all about my coping skills along with tips and tricks from licensed professionals, some favorite tools of mine that help me, and contemporary topics and issues in the mental health world.

Thank you all so much for the read and don’t forget to subscribe if you’d like to get instant notifications when I post! You can also follow my Instagram account and like the Mental.blog Facebook page!!

Xo,

Anna Katherine