Reality of Mental Illness
This is why I feel so deeply for those living with mental illness:
It is often silent, over-looked, taken lightly, and sometimes it can try to take away the people we love the most. It takes an incredible amount of strength and courage for someone to walk into a medical facility to ask a stranger for help. I spent the last part of my work day fighting back tears because of a complete stranger who walked in with that courage today. All I could see in her eyes was my daughter lying on that hospital bed, the numbers dropping on the monitor next to her, my 13 year old child barely conscious on a stretcher being loaded into an ambulance...
That young woman standing in front of me with swollen eyes, trying so hard to hold it together in those few short minutes was someone's child too.
Today, that kid on the stretcher is full of energy as she laughs hysterically at nothing. She loves snuggling with her momma again, baking cakes for no reason at all, and is always singing. Yesterday, she jumped around in the rain simply because she could. It's hard to believe that she was fighting for her life only four short months ago.
Though the possibility of her returning to that dark place is very real and still exists, so does the possibility of a much brighter future. We may be a little too silly at times or a little too loud. We might eat a little too much cake or spend a little too much money at Starbucks. We may even sing a little too loudly with all of the windows open with no regard for the neighbors. But these are the moments that matter, ones that were once lost to severe depression and anxiety... Moments that could have easily been lost forever.
Sometimes, all it takes is for the right people to just stop and listen.
It is often silent, over-looked, taken lightly, and sometimes it can try to take away the people we love the most. It takes an incredible amount of strength and courage for someone to walk into a medical facility to ask a stranger for help. I spent the last part of my work day fighting back tears because of a complete stranger who walked in with that courage today. All I could see in her eyes was my daughter lying on that hospital bed, the numbers dropping on the monitor next to her, my 13 year old child barely conscious on a stretcher being loaded into an ambulance...
That young woman standing in front of me with swollen eyes, trying so hard to hold it together in those few short minutes was someone's child too.
Today, that kid on the stretcher is full of energy as she laughs hysterically at nothing. She loves snuggling with her momma again, baking cakes for no reason at all, and is always singing. Yesterday, she jumped around in the rain simply because she could. It's hard to believe that she was fighting for her life only four short months ago.
Though the possibility of her returning to that dark place is very real and still exists, so does the possibility of a much brighter future. We may be a little too silly at times or a little too loud. We might eat a little too much cake or spend a little too much money at Starbucks. We may even sing a little too loudly with all of the windows open with no regard for the neighbors. But these are the moments that matter, ones that were once lost to severe depression and anxiety... Moments that could have easily been lost forever.
Sometimes, all it takes is for the right people to just stop and listen.
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