Mental Health Mondays #20 : It makes you different...

First off, I apologise for going on hiatus with these posts. Stuff has been weird and kind of difficult and even though I got myself a post schedule for the first time ever I just couldn't write :(
But I've motivated myself for once and today I'm going to share some of my thoughts about how mental health changes you:

It occurred to me recently, and perhaps I should have realised sooner, that having mental health problems makes you different. I'm someone who always encourages others with the idea that your illness does not define you but I realised that, although I am so much more than my diagnoses, I am also different because of the issues I have and that is okay?

I feel I am on a journey to accepting myself, something I think a lot of us are trying to do. But I'm not convinced that I've entirely been going about it in the right way. It's important to realise that, whilst there is a lot more to me as a person than my problems, there are things that it is unwise for me to do, and reactions which I may have to certain experiences which may be unexpected by others. Part of learning and moving through life with mental health difficulties is accepting that these responses, albeit different, are okay.

I'm not sure how well I'm making my point, but all I really mean is that it's alright to experience symptoms relating to your condition. You wouldn't get angry at yourself for sneezing when you have a cold, because that's a symptom of the illness, so it's time I stopped beating myself up over experiencing symptoms of an illness which I have?!

Obviously, having a mental health condition is frustrating and numerous times I find myself breaking down over the fact that I thought I was doing better and I've ended up in a relapse. But I wanted to share with you the thought that part of the journey to accepting yourself, is accepting that you are different because you have certain difficulties. This does not diminish your worth and you're still capable of great things, just make sure you're doing them at your own pace!

I hope you've found this stream of my consciousness interesting! Please let me know your thoughts in a comment and if you have any topics you'd like to see feature in a MHM contact me because I'm always looking for inspiration! Thanks again for reading, I've got some guest posts coming up in the next month which I'm very excited for too!!