Hello to 2016 and sort of a new/old direction for this blog. These MHM posts will continue, with links to the videos but I won’t link or blog about the book videos anymore, though I may do the odd review on here too. Anyway, to today’s topic, very relevant for January. Resolutions. Specifically, how the pressure to make resolutions may affect you if you’re suffering from depression or any other mental illness.
Specific set goals are really helpful for some people, and setting them at this time of year is sort of a thing now. Most people will not keep the resolutions they set, others will find them hugely helpful and will hit most if not all. However, if you’re ill you can find this time of year and the pressure to set targets or goals overwhelming, it can even become an impediment to recovery or worsen your condition.
Categorically, you are under no obligation to set goals for the year, for your mental health recovery, or for anything else, especially if doing so would be counterproductive. Often we feel stressed enough when we’re suffering and the extra pressure to make firm goals for recovery might actually become a breaking point. The only resolution that counts, if indeed you want to have one at all, is to eventually regain control of your mind and not allow it to dictate how your life is lived. And the journey to that state can take (and indeed must take) as long as is required.
It’s important to start, to look for help and get support, to find a treatment plan that works, but everything after that is baby steps. Tiny, incremental steps toward health and wellbeing. There is no rush. Rushing will not help. Pressure will not help. Resolutions are only as useful as you find them. If they make you feel edgy and unhappy, if they stress you out, ditch them and go for one tiny step at a time instead toward that single goal of wellness, or if that single goal is too far or too big to deal with, simply make the next tiny step your horizon.
All that matters in the end is that you find your own way, in your own time, to a state of mental equilibrium. For some this will be harder than others and will involve a dedication to strict regimes of medication and therapy, but that is for them to decide. No one gets to say ‘you must now’ unless you are a danger to yourself or others.
Move forward in 2016 in tiny steps toward the wellness that you deserve, and pay no attention to outside pressures. This is your journey. Walk it in your own way and at your own pace.
Word Bullets 