you are valid
- Frances Lee
- Nov 28, 2016
- 3 min read
You are valid.
Your emotions are valid.
Your reactions are valid.
You may not know why and you may not be able to fully grasp why you feel the way you do in this moment, but that doesn't make it any less important and significant. Just because you can't pinpoint how you're feeling or attribute it to a certain origin, that doesn't mean that you should disregard it or push it to the side. You don't have to have an answer for every single emotion and thought that crosses your mind. If you want to walk to the edge of a cliff and dangle your feet as you scream your head off with tears streaming down your face, only to have the wind wipe them away, that's perfectly fine. If you want to get angry and throw pillow after pillow at the wall and scream curse word after curse word, that's valid. That's totally okay. You go do that and live that out. If you feel like staying in bed because you have no motivation to go out and socialize and be what society deems to be a normal person, take the day off because your mental health comes first.
Your mental health comes first. I can't stress this enough. I've seen so many people from high school until now disregard their mental health. You don't have to have anxiety, panic attacks, and diagnosed depression to care about your mental health. It is a state that you are constantly fighting to keep in balance. There are days that you feel like everything is too much - don't kick that to the curb and tell yourself that you're just weak. You are feeling that way for a reason - your mind is telling you that you have taken on too much and that it can't handle it anymore. It is telling you that it thirsts for a break, for a refuge, for a temporary sense of relief. It does not mean you're weak. It is another signal that you are human.
Needing a mental health day does not tell the world that you are incompetent, at least it shouldn't. It means that you are taking care of yourself and you knowing that makes you much more healthy and strong than you telling yourself and everyone else everything is perfect all the time.
I used to tell myself that I never needed a mental health day - I told myself that everyone else's needs should come first and that my mental health could come last. But that doesn't cut it. I ignored myself so much my freshman year that one day, I bundled up under sweater and coat and scarf and walked out of my dorm. I walked around campus at 2 to 3 am because I needed to get air. I felt so suffocated. I felt like dying. I got out, breathed, and let it out. I walked around our campus and looked for little spaces of solace so that I could cry into my scarf and let the fibers of my hoodie absorb the sadness that threatened to burst my mind into a million different pieces. I cried for an hour and let the tears dry into shards of glass on my face in the cold fall chill that hit my face. Whenever I heard voices I'd wipe my face quickly and calm my heart for a moment before they left, when my heart would wrench into nothingness and threaten to consume me.
Mental health is important.
You are valid.
Your emotions are valid.
Your reactions are valid.
What you are feeling? You are feeling for a reason. Don't ignore what your mind and your body are telling you. Your mental health is just as important as your physical health. Just because you're not diagnosed doesn't mean you don't need self-care.
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