Ensuring constant personal growth, being a valuable community member, maintaining work-life balance… Already sounds like spinning too many plates at once. Still, pretty much an ordinary life of a person in the 21-st century. How do people deal with it, being not psychology experts, but average working bees? Pedro, our customer support consultant, may just hold the answer to this ever-lingering question.
Pedro: About a year ago, I started therapy. I was coping with depression and anxiety, which heavily influenced the quality of my life. The main thing I learned during this time is that taking care of mental health is a journey. There are really no measurable results here, every day you face new challenges and need to deal with them.
I can say everyone needs some kind of safe space to function and go on with their lives. By that I mean not just physical safety, but the feeling of comfort that helps us cope with everyday challenges. And you can’t find such space unless you are comfortable inside your own mind.
Mental state affects major aspects of your life — your relationship, your job that gives you resources for survival, your personal and professional development. The world around us is constantly changing, and so do we. We need to focus on our roles in it. It is ok if we can’t define our roles at once, as I said, it is a journey. But within this journey, I personally want to be comfortable with myself and face challenges the best way possible.
Anastasiia: In my opinion, mental health awareness all over the world is still pretty poor, and lots of people try to cope with their problems themselves. How did you make a decision to get help?
Pedro: Since I was a kid, I had a vast experience with therapy and psychological help. Sure, as I grew up, I had to cope with a lot of stuff by myself, for very obvious and common reasons, like my personal finances. But this time I realized I had sufficient income that was enough to take care of myself. It was a big step for me. I sincerely believe therapy is like going to the gym, or eating healthy food — it is an important step to improve your life quality. It is always worth prioritizing, but you need to get resources to afford it.
As for the global mental health awareness level, I believe it is getting better. There is some really great job done with promoting taking care of mental health as much as we do of physical one, and this job needs to be continued.
People face a lot of issues nowadays, maybe more than ever. In a rapidly evolving world and buzzing society, it is challenging to find your place and your purpose. And a lot of people, especially younger ones, are getting more aware of the topic, as we want to improve ourselves in any way possible.
I can personally see here, in Ecuador, my home country, awareness level grows, but as I have mentioned, therapy is quite expensive.
Anastasiia: I believe people all over the world can relate. Here, in Eastern Europe, we totally feel the issue.
Pedro: Right. And supporting your mental health shouldn’t be a privilege. I know things are evolving as society changes. There are a lot of social initiatives in this field, and we, as citizens of our countries, can support it and draw attention of our governments to these issues to make it more popular and accessible.
But when thinking about our lives in particular, it is important for everyone to realize mental health can’t be less important than physical one.
Anastasiia: Unfortunately, a lot of us are still on their way to understanding this. As for now, too many people still think things like therapy are not just expensive, but a complete waste of money. Or even try it and give up quickly.
Pedro: It’s always worth (but not always easy) keeping in mind therapy doesn’t provide instant results. It may often lead you to thinking you are wasting money, because you don’t get some visible results for a while. Still, it is quite natural: everything has a growing phase, and we can’t skip it. If you have been behaving a certain way since you were a child, or had a certain habit for twenty years, it’s not something you can change in two months.
Besides, a lot of people quit at an early stage, as it is not just a slow, but also a painful process. Taking a serious look inside yourself is not much fun, it is uncomfortable, and you may not like what you learn about yourself. At some point you may start asking yourself, “Is it really worth doing this, if things are not appealing to me?” Spoiler: it is.
With the right spirit, we can really do a lot. It is always worth remembering that even small steps are big achievements for you.
Anastasiia: That’s important to point out. If getting out of bed in the morning feels like a huge challenge, it means if you have managed to do it, it is already a big achievement, and today you have something to be proud about. This kind of mindset may be really helpful if you need to combine some mental health struggles with work. From a critical point of view, your career may not look like much, but if you are doing a required amount of work, you need to realize you are already doing a lot.
Now, on to the next question. I often feel modern society, especially our generation, falls into some kind of trap. On the one hand we are supposed to be mindful, balanced, and should take care of ourselves, and on the other — we are still urged to be productive, constantly learn, develop, and perform at our best. Do you have some experience on balancing these things out?
Pedro: I understand what you’re saying, but to be completely honest — I am not sure if I manage to do it. In fact, trying too hard to find balance can be stressful by itself. While looking for ways to get rid of stress, we can push ourselves too hard and stress out even more. Sometimes we just need to go with the flow.
Sure, I am trying to perform my best as a professional. Here, at SupportYourApp, I have the support of my manager and my team. I always know there are people I can rely on. If I am doing something wrong, I will know it, I will get my feedback and have a clear goal I can move towards to improve. This will be something I can focus on, have my small but visible achievements and stay engaged.
Anastasiia: To wrap things up, I suggest sharing the best piece of advice you’ve ever heard in terms of taking care of yourself. I can go ahead and share the one I remember the most: take care of your mind as you would of an expensive tool. Because in fact it is. If you are engaged with an intellectual job, you should always remember you depend on your brain the way a photographer depends on their camera and a driver on their car. But, unlike a camera or a car, it can’t be replaced for something better and more functional. Your mind is irreplaceable and you better take good care of it.
Pedro: That’s a great one! Now, mine is: have something to believe in. It may be something stronger and bigger than you, like fate or religion, or if it’s not your thing, you can choose to believe in yourself. Of course, you will sometimes struggle, as anyone does from time to time. Life is in fact challenging, and during hard moments it is crucial to have faith. Believe that everything is going to get better, and you will handle it, and one day, surprisingly, you will see it is really happening.
Also, it’s always worth remembering that taking care of yourself is a constant process. You can never say something like “Ok, I need a few months, or a year, or even five, and then everything will be fine”. It is a lifelong journey, where you need to contribute every day. Keep on learning, exploring yourself, and the world around you. Eventually, you will see how it improves your life, and the lives of people around you.
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Anastasiia Nesterova.
Anastasiia is a professional writer with a diverse background. She used to write about IT, logistics, business, but now her main interest is customer support and communication. Anastasiia’s biggest passion is reading — she prefers books over anything. She believes that the greatest thing a keen reader can do is to write themselves.
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