Do you keep pathologizing yourself?

Do you stigmatize yourself on a daily basis? Saying things like…

“I’m too emotional.”

“I have bad anxiety.”

“I shouldn’t be crying.”

Basically do you make your dysregulation bad?

It’s time we normalize all emotional states and hold their complexity, cause it’s May and that means it’s Mental Health Month!

This month I proudly celebrate seven years as a psychotherapist. And what I can tell you is that it has become trendy to FIX ourselves. 

Particularly fixing ourselves with an IG quote, obsessively googling “How to not be depressed/sad/anxious/[fill out the blank],” or finding any escape to our discomfort.

We’ve turned it into a toxic habit to make every single one of our behaviors BAD.

This isn't your fault.

Capitalism teaches you to over-pathologize. To find an issue about yourself.

There is profit in creating "problems." 

Let me be clear: I’m not dismissing nor minimizing your struggle. It’s crucial to acknowledge your mental health and the pain you face.

But there is a difference between kindly bringing awareness to your experience vs. making yourself wrong or policing your emotions.

Experiencing mental health struggle is consistently dehumanized and shamed.

The shame can be attributed to capitalism and systems of oppression that support the ideology that to be strong and powerful you have to be emotionless.

But hear me when I say there is no such thing as a mentally healthy person.

Normalize your daily struggles.

And no, not just in therapy! But in the workplace, in your friendships, family, and communities. 

Practice authentically expressing your emotions and feeling empowered by that.

The bravest and kindest thing you can do is to let yourself cry, scream, and emote. It’s your chance to be unapologetically you.

Don’t hide the most beautiful parts of yourself. 💗

If you are struggling emotionally, you are not failing. It doesn’t make you weak, it makes you HUMAN. When we outgrow the mindset that our emotions make us less than, we find liberation. We find our true selves.

So let's get Mental Health Month off to a good start. How can we normalize prioritizing our mental health and expressing how we feel? Ask people how they are doing. Be honest when someone asks you. 

Your mental health always matters.

Give yourself some grace

Much love,

Nora