You know, if you had asked me when I first started getting treated for mental health issues, I would have told you that everything was going wrong. I would have told you that I felt like committing suicide, or that I hated my life.

Now, I look at my whole process of going through this situation as a beautiful thing. It is so amazing. It is something that has helped me to grow and I couldn’t be more grateful for those nights where I couldn’t sleep because I was crying so much. Why do I say this? I say this because I have learned a few things about myself throughout all of this ordeal and these things are more valuable than what any textbook could explain, not to say that I don’t appreciate those textbooks but you get what I mean. Here are a few things that I’ve learned about myself over the years of being a mental health consumer.

It’s important to learn to control myself

So, I have learned that being in the situation that I’m in, I have to learn to control myself even in difficult situations. No matter how hard my life gets, I must maintain my integrity or else my life will fall apart.

I’ll give you an example. If my parents are yelling at me because I did something wrong, it’s not like they are hurting me, they just want to see me grow up to be a well-developed and responsible adult. I have to appreciate that regardless of how I feel. I cannot lash out and I cannot overreact because they love me. I love them.

I need to take care of myself

Before my first mental health hospitalization, I thought that I was some super soldier who could do anything in life and get away with it without ever having to sleep or rest or get taken care of. I learned when I went through this that it’s okay to ask for help. It is okay to have weaknesses because we all have them so we need to take care of ourselves.

A way that I take care of myself is that I listen to music. Listening to music is so beneficial to me because I love music and I could never get enough of it. It could be any type of music and I would appreciate it in some way.

Thank you guys so much for listening in on this blog post. I hope that I have been an encouragement and inspiration to you guys. Please feel free to contact us if you have any questions. Like, share, subscribe, and I will see you all next time. German Gonzalez, signing out!