What is going to happen to me?

Brains are tricky and don’t follow predictable patterns.

Will I get better?

Some people get better just by confiding in someone and working through feelings and emotions. Others need medication or therapy. Finding personal tricks that help are always nice.

If you’re struggling with a mental illness that has really impacted your life, getting better is going take time. It’s possible you have to take a step back to really focus on taking care of your brain and reducing stress in your life. Your mental health problems might also feel like a constant in your life – but you can learn how to accept it and find ways to control the “episodes”.

You could also choose to ignore the problem. This option doesn’t necessarily mean it go away. Actually, ignoring mental illnesses often makes them worse.

The worse thing you can do is hurt yourself on top of having mental health problems.  This is hard when your mental illness is telling you to hurt yourself.  Don’t hurt yourself. Don’t do drugs. Don’t beat yourself up.

What is it like to work on mental health problems?

We can’t promise you the path to getting better will be pain free – it’s actually not pain free. Getting better often means digging into hard emotional stuff that we would rather avoid. It means being vulnerable, crying, tackling hard thoughts and feelings. It usually hurts a lot.

Recovery is like physical therapy. You can barely walk at first. It hurts like freaking hell. It takes time. You’ll definitely fall and not want to get up. But if you stick with it, things will get better.