Meet Monaia.

Honestly, I’m a lot more comfortable talking about my mental health now. I didn’t used to talk about my mental health at all. I never used to really talk about it. But the more that I learn to understand myself, I’m a lot more comfortable with talking about it.

“I think I’ve been dealing with mental health issues since I was a teenager.”

And I think as kids, as teens, you don’t really know what you’re going through. You don’t really know how to label yourself as, “Oh, I might be depressed or I might have anxiety.” So as I got older and start wondering why I do certain things or why I handle things the way that I do, it took me on a whole new journey to learn about myself and mental health issues.

So as a teen, I was a partier. I used to go out with my friends. I used to like to drink. I love to eat. I would overindulge in all of those things. And I noticed that I wasn’t sleeping well. I didn’t have no energy. I just didn’t feel like my best self. So starting that journey of just kind of cutting certain things out really started my journey.

 With the pandemic, everything kind of just shut down. So I was really anxious about my finances, how I was going to take care of myself. Yeah, my anxiety was through the roof.
And I actually went to a therapist at the beginning of the pandemic. And that helped tremendously.

 It was really hard for me because, like I said before, I never really talk about
my mental health and I didn’t really know why I felt the way that I felt. But I found an awesome therapist that was really relatable for me, someone that has been through kind of the same issues as I have. And it was amazing.

I think I’ve always gone through waves of being really good, thinking I can handle it myself, and then something would happen and I would be right back in the same situation that I was in. And I just held myself accountable to want that change, to really want it.

“Anxiety, depression, things like that, it’s never your fault.”

It’s never something that you should feel like you’re alone in. And sometimes it’s not always the easiest for me to vent to family and friends just because a lot of people have their own opinions. And it’s not necessarily the same opinion that I might have.

I think with therapists it’s a very unbiased situation. If they want to give their opinion, they’ll obviously, they’ll ask. But they’re also there to just listen, as well.

Keeping busy is like the number one thing that helped me and not just keeping busy with work or anything like that, keeping busy with things that I actually enjoy. I’ve noticed that when I just put myself in positions to be happy or just even saying that I’m happy when I’m not. It almost kind of tricks the mind and tricks yourself into thinking, feeling that you really are.

So I just always tell people to keep up spirits, keep your faith that you actually will be better, especially if you really want to. It’s not an easy journey. You’re always going to go through waves where you’re not feeling your best. But as long as you have the faith to keep going, that’s all that really matters.

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