I'm not going to lie…this was a tough post to write. As someone who has suffers immensely from mental health and has trauma of my own, getting this post published seemed like a very tall order. I’m not sure if I’m really ready to talk about my own trauma and battle with mental health, so today we are going to take a dive into the story one of the bravest women I have ever known.
I’m not going to say that this post is perfect, nor do I believe it full encapsulates the importance of the topic at hand, but we only have but so much time together and I believe what I say has value here.
Mental Health Awareness Month is all about bringing awareness to the health and well being of ones mind and breaking down stigmas surrounding it. A long time ago, someone somewhere said that there needs to be more conversation around mental health and how it affects their lives and now we see people all over the internet opening up about their experiences and the challenges they’ve faced. While we are, as a society are actively engaging and telling our stories, there are still so many people who doubt the validity of our truths and don’t believe us. From rape to childhood abuse, domestic violence, and all of the crevasses in between, there are so many places we can get lost.
I’m going to tell the story of my stepmother, Jackie. A victim of childhood trauma and abuse, at an age where she had not yet developed a voice only to have it taken away. I’ll spare you the gory details, but let’s talk about what her trauma has done for her overall mental health. I don’t want to tell you what it made her feel and how it changed how she viewed herself because it isn’t fair of me to try and describe her experiences to you. Instead, let’s talk about trauma and how it manifests!
Trauma manifests itself differently in everyone
A key pillar of mental health awareness month is that no two stories are the same and for Jackie, she’s seen and felt things that no one can imagine. Have you ever sat down in the shower while the water is running down your back, stricken with grief over something that triggered flashbacks? Have you ever indulged in something a little too much because it was the only safe thing around? Have you ever thought about, just for a second, what your existence on this earth really meant to those closest to you? It’s okay if you have and it’s okay if you haven’t. No two stories are the same.
Through the years, I’ve personally seen Jackie grow both emotionally and physically into a more confident and secure woman. No one will ever have the secret sauce to imperviousness and there are endless ways trauma can manifest. She’s grown into a version of herself that is mentally and physically stronger with an iron will. She is now at a precipice in her life where she’s starting to love herself despite what she has been through. That is a truly steep incline. Think about it. You go from being a child that never had the chance to develop a voice of advocacy for yourself, walking through life into adulthood without that foundation to blossoming into a flower with the strongest stem to have ever been known and felt.
We’ve talked about self-love here before, my family, and we will continue to pursue challenging societal norms and pressures that influence how we see ourselves. It has taken me a long time to get to a point where I am comfortable in my own skin and with who I am. Yeah, I still sit in the shower with water running down my back and I still wince when I hear loud noises, but those parts of me that make up my soul.
Mental health is seldom emphasized enough and in many circles in society, it is still frowned upon to exercise your mental health, but there are so many reasons it needs to be in the forefront of everyone’s minds. At the end of the day, Mental Health Awareness Month is used as a representation of the fact that
YOU ARE NOT ALONE
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