If you are struggling with thoughts of suicide, PLEASE call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline: 1-800-273-TALK (8255).
Many of us have been conditioned to suppress our concerns about our mental health, to be brave and stoic in the face of our pain, and to be private about anything difficult we’re going through. We stifle our difficult thoughts and feelings, which only worsens our mental health issues. We choose silence, suppression and denial as our defense mechanisms against further pain but only find ourselves suffering more. We don’t reach out for support when we need it. We turn down offers for help. We isolate ourselves and feel totally alone in our pain. From our families, communities and cultures, we’ve learned patterns of avoidance that cause us to ignore our mental health issues. We hope they’ll simply go away. We hope that if we ignore them long enough, we’ll no longer be affected by them. We continue to suffer, though, burdened by the very heavy weight of our traumas, wounds and unhealed fears. We experience worsened depressions, relapses in our addictions, and total breakdowns in our health.
Our mental health can act as the foundation for the rest of our health, for the health of the rest of our systems, emotional, physical and spiritual. If we’re unable to function, if we’re so stressed out, overwhelmed and depressed that we can’t live our lives normally, if we’re consumed by suicidal thoughts, we can’t care for ourselves and make sure we’re healthy and balanced. When we’re not in good mental health, we’re totally out of alignment. We feel lost and confused, uncertain about how to move forward. Sometimes we’re in so much mental and emotional pain we feel as though we can’t keep living. When we’ve been in this painful place, we come to learn just how important it is to tend to our mental health with the same urgency we would any other medical emergency.
We don’t usually want to think of our mental health as an urgent issue. We’d rather not deal with it. We’re afraid of being judged or deemed weak and unable to control ourselves. We fear being shunned, rejected and criticized. We would risk our health deteriorating before we got the help we needed. We have to learn to shed the stigma that tells us we’re less-than or unworthy if we’re struggling with a mental illness. We need to learn to have much more understanding and compassion for ourselves. We want to treat ourselves with kindness and supportiveness, not self-rejection. The more we’re kind and loving to ourselves, the more we see just how important our health is. When we give our mental health the attention it needs, we’re able to move forward and accomplish the things we’ve outlined for ourselves, reach the goals we’ve set for ourselves, and enjoy good health and happiness as we work to recover.
At The Guest House Ocala, we are uniquely equipped to help our guests heal from trauma-induced substance abuse, process addiction, anxiety and depression in a safe, comfortable and confidential setting. Call 855-483-7800 today for more information on our treatment programs.