Mental Health Matters
“We each are alone and we are in fellowship, broken and held, protected from nothing and sustained in everything. It’s the beginning of an old story, life, and death, loss, and life. ~ Ashley Judd Those words were written by a grief-stricken daughter on the death of mom country music star Naomi Judd. I think I was as shocked as most people to learn about the death of this beloved woman. But in the days since her death, I am finding out that she was a huge advocate for mental health and she herself even had thoughts of suicide. Mental health is an issue that isn’t talked about a lot often times swept under the table and ignored. But it is also an issue that I am passionate about.
I have mentioned many times how I struggle with depression and anxiety. I even have done podcasts on Chats from the Blog Cabin about this issue. My own girls were guests on a panel that talked about it as well. Apple didn’t fall far from the tree there. At some point in time, we have all been in some form of therapy. I was brought up to believe that talking about your thoughts and feelings were just wrong. That was better to bury them than to give life to them.
But when I became a mom of three beautiful and intelligent girls, I made the decision to let them know that it was okay to say what you feel and that those feelings are valid. Even now when they are all grown up I tell them to call me on my crap if I ever disregard or hurt their feelings. And believe me, they do.
But being raised by a mom of a different generation, I can see why therapy like Headway wasn’t accepted. One because you didn’t talk about such things. And secondly, there wasn’t a lot of extra money to be had to pay for therapy. And who would want people to know you were seeing a therapist anyway?
When my girls were little thankfully we had insurance that covered this but not before we had a referral from our doctor for it. Now with companies like Headway, getting help is a lot easier. They are able to get you in touch with not only a therapist but also check to see which therapist is the right one for your needs, emotionally and financially. Imagine finding a therapist you absolutely love only to be told that
- They aren’t in the network
- They aren’t taking new patients
- They don’t take your insurance
Those things happen and are real my friend.
I am thankful that we had resources available to us navigating the mental health community and all that it has to offer. I want to leave you with one thing and if it is the only thing you get from the post I will be happy. And that one thing is::
It’s okay to talk about your feelings. It’s okay to ask for help. You aren’t being weak because you can’t navigate this field alone, you are actually so strong to reach out for help. If you need help ask for it.
