Mental Health Awareness

Mental Health Awareness

This week, Ravishly honors Mental Health Awareness Month by exploring the many voices and experiences that make up living with mental illness.

I don’t feel as helpless as I once did. Image: Eli DeFaria/Unsplash

4 Ways I Manage My Depression

[CN: suicidal thoughts, blood] The success I have today wouldn’t be possible without the following four tools I regularly use to manage my depression.

Better living through chemistry. Image: Thinkstock.

Antidepressants Helped My ADHD

The SSRI I took didn’t have as dramatic an effect as my stimulants did, but it allowed me to laugh and love life again and still managed to take the rough edges off my concentration.

Believe me when I say that I know depression.

What 'Depression' Actually Means (Because Some Of You Don't Know)

[CN: suicidal thoughts, self-harm] Why is it OK to minimize the symptoms of a serious, debilitating, chronic condition with no cure just because it’s mental, not physical?

It took until my early 20s to learn I suffered from OCD, and that life didn’t have to be like this. Image: quimuns/Pixabay

Growing Up With OCD

The fear of my parents getting killed driving me there or back loomed around every decision. I always went with my parents on every errand possible, pretending I liked the grocery store.

I'm painfully bored, but I don't have the energy to do anything. Image: Thinkstock.

5 Contradictions That Folks With Mental Illness Know All Too Well

One thing I’ve noticed about mental illness is that it’s a mess of contradictions. It tells us one thing, urges us to do another. We have one desire, but then act totally to the contrary because… reasons.

I felt so much nothing that it was an emotion unto itself: the feeling of having no feelings.

Sometimes It's Hard To Feel Things Again: Adjusting To Life After Depression

[CN: vomit] Having been an unfeeling, sluggish husk of a person with the nap-taking skills of an elderly sloth for the past five months or so, I have reemerged too tender for this world.

Your feelings are valid. Image: Thinkstock.

Having A Mental Illness Doesn't Make Your Feelings Invalid

People who live with mental illness are aware of how our brains work differently. Because of this, we constantly go the extra mile to try to validate what we’re feeling within ourselves before even considering voicing an opinion out loud.

Even the fierce love I have for my family doesn’t mean I don’t feel utterly hopeless sometimes. Image: Thinkstock.

Suicidal Ideation And The Complication Of Motherhood

[CN: suicide, overdose] Gratitude stops me from ending my life, but it doesn’t stop me from wanting to end my life. Even the fierce love I have for my family doesn’t mean I don’t feel utterly hopeless sometimes.

Ask Aunt Ginger!

Ask Aunt Ginger: Self-Care For Mental Health

This week in Aunt Ginger we're talking about Mental Health Awareness. Ginger offers strategies for mental health self-care.

I will be kind to myself in times of difficulty AND times of ease. Image: Thinkstock.

How Mental Health Awareness Helps Me Cope With My Mental Illnesses

[CN: PTSD, self-harm] I’m choosing this moment to remember that mental health awareness is about celebrating my victories as well as seeking medications for my biochemical imbalances.