Mindfulness and Mental Health Awareness
As we’ve been sharing on our socials, this week is Mental Health Awareness Week. While we try to make every week about mental health awareness, this week does allow for a larger conversation with more parties. It allows for more education. And hopefully, it allows more people to get help.
I say this as someone who was not aware of my emotions or my mental health challenges for years. It was probably close to a decade that I lived with sleepless nights, with anxiety and with depression. Nearly 10 years of feeling isolated, of feeling like there was something fundamentally wrong with me, something that couldn’t be fixed.
Mental health awareness, regardless of when it happens, isn’t just about educating others about mental health. It is about educating ourselves as well. One of the most insidious things about mental illness is how it can isolate you and make you feel like you are alone with these struggles.
It is why one of the most therapeutic things that someone can hear is that they are not alone. We are a social species, and social support can go a long way towards chasing away our darkness.
Unfortunately, the stigma that still surrounds mental health concerns keeps too many people isolated. It keeps too many from speaking up and connecting with others. It keeps too many from understanding that they aren’t alone, that they don’t have to face this darkness alone, that there is help.
We can help.
You local Lawyer Assistance Program (LAP) or Employee Assistance Program (EAP) can help.
And there are therapists out there who can help.
And yes, our mental health system is fractured. Piecing together all of these different pieces can be a major challenge. Yet that doesn’t mean that we don’t try. And more than just providing peer support, The LegalMind Society can help you locate the resources you need to piece together your own road map to recovery. We can help you find that path because it is one that we’ve walked ourselves.
And for us, mental health awareness is about helping you find that path too.