In today’s generation, many experience mental health problems. You might be wondering how this happened, and I’m sure you have some ideas in mind. Now, I will share with you how I face the challenges of mental health.

Hello there, Mikay here. I am writing this blog not to get attention but to inspire people who might be in the same situation as me. I have a history of seizures, which started when I was in Grade 8. These seizures are somewhat connected to my mental health issues, which began in Grade 9. In 9th grade, I think I already had anxiety. I felt very nervous before dancing in our intramurals, and while dancing, I collapsed. After that incident, the clinic asked me to rest at home. I felt a little better and visited the school to watch some games, but I was sad because I couldn’t participate.

Moving on, during our prom, I collapsed again because I felt nervous, but I regained consciousness quickly. A week after the prom, I hugged my crush and, unexpectedly, felt nervous again. After the hug, I collapsed and got a wound on my eyebrow. After several episodes of collapsing, we consulted a psychiatrist because all my test results, from pedia to neurology, were negative. The psychiatrist diagnosed me with Anxiety Disorder. This news was quite shocking, but I was determined to handle it through the right procedures. This all happened between 2018 and 2020, and the pandemic increased my anxiety, though I managed to cope up with it.

Fast forward to the new normal, I was still adjusting, and my anxiety worsened during the pandemic, especially since we couldn't go out. Over time, I learned to manage my anxiety by reminding myself to breathe. In 2023, I started experiencing signs of depression, which I initially ignored. My mom noticed that I was afraid to go to school and didn't want to go anymore, so she took me to a psychiatrist again. This time, it was a different psychiatrist because we lost contact with the first one. The new psychiatrist diagnosed me with Mixed Anxiety and Depressive Disorder. Knowing about my mental health status was disheartening; I became suicidal, had difficulty sleeping, felt sad for no reason, ghosted people, isolated myself, and more. I tried different activities to cope, like cleaning, but they didn’t help much because I love socializing, which I couldn’t do at that time.

After experiencing ups and downs with my mental health, I gradually learned to handle it. I switched to seeing a psychologist because I didn’t want to rely solely on medications. It's important to note that psychiatrists and psychologists are different: psychiatrists focus more on medications and clinical diagnoses, while psychologists help you find ways to cope and improve your mental health without relying on medications. My visits to the psychologist helped me a lot, teaching me techniques to manage anxiety and depressive episodes. I had monthly visits to update how I was going and her advice helped me in a way. I was glad I improved myself with her guiding me.

To conclude, mental health really matters. As you can see, my journey has been full of challenges, but that hasn’t stopped me from moving forward in my life. My advice is to embrace your mental health, feel what you need to feel, and once you're done, get back on track. This way, you can understand yourself and your emotions better. Let’s continue to fight for our lives and not give up. No matter how many challenges we face, we will succeed. Laban!

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