“Why are you always in your room?” “Why don’t you want to go out?” Question after question, yet people never stop to figure out the “why” to their whys.
Mental health plays a huge part in many people’s lives, including mine. Growing up, mental health wasn’t something I prioritized or thought about at all. If anything, physical health seemed more important. By the time I was in 7th grade, I realized how impactful my mentality and thought process was. Surprisingly not, that’s when the pandemic happened too. Being cooped up everyday for months, not socializing like how I used to, school being through a computer, and more, affected my mental health like I didn’t think possible. I didn’t realize how bad I was doing until it was a bit too late.
My grades were more than good and I was physically healthy, but I was still in a bad place. Having bad mental health affects everyone differently, which is why it can be hard to detect. Not everyone realizes that being in a bad place, mentally, affects you physically as well. I used to think that being physically healthy was the key to living a good life. In reality, one isn’t more important than the other. They both play hand in hand. If you’re in a bad place, that can affect your hygiene, etc. Being physically and mentally healthy work together to build me into a balanced person.
It took me almost two years to get myself to where I am now- a decent place, mentally. I dealt with all of my problems alone. In 8th grade, I thought to myself, “I have all these friends, I’m not using Zoom to learn, what more can I want?” All these things should’ve added up to me healing and skyrocketed my mental health for the better, so why was I still struggling? It wasn’t until I was halfway into 9th grade that I slowly realized how okay I was doing. I didn’t have little arguments in my head of things I couldn’t control, I didn’t care about what others thought, I didn’t try to read people’s minds, etc. My skin even cleared up. I wasn’t stressing over things I shouldn’t be. Healing and adapting a new mentality affected my physical looks, and I wasn’t tired after doing the smallest things. I was energized, calm, and put together.
Even though I’m doing better than I did 2 years ago, when someone asks me “what’s one thing about yourself you could improve?” I would still say my mental health. Everyone who doubts that mental health does not affect them needs to realize how impactful it can actually be to their overall being.
