After Mental Health Issues: The Paradox of Feeling Good

It’s hard to write when you’re feeling well. There is nothing heavy on the brain anymore, and it makes it hard to express something that is not there. How do you stay connected to something when your connection is moot?

Since taking my new medication, I have been feeling 100% better. This is great—please don’t think I am writing just to complain. I’m not. I’m writing because no one ever tells you what to do when you are feeling better.

How do you live your life and still be connected to something that is still there, yet silenced?

When you’re in the thick of mental health issues, you don’t think about anyone but yourself. It’s hard to understand that people are out there, like you, suffering. Once the suffering is over, it’s hard to come up from the storm, look around, and understand what happened and why. Maybe that’s why no one tells you what happens after feeling better: because no one really knows. Mental health issues shape the lives they touch so much that you’re waiting for the next episode, instead of living.

That’s no way to live.

I’ve decided that, since no one wants to discuss how to make your life work after a tornado of mental health issues, I’m going to make it up as I go. I’m going to dip myself into my mental health community. I’m going to make sure I stay on top of mental health issues—not just for myself, but for my community. I’m going to do mental health fundraisers, participate in runs/walks, blog more, and even sign up for my local NAMI organization and see if my services could be used. I’m going to learn a language, plan a trip somewhere, and go out and do something I’ve never done. And I’m going to live without the fear of my illness popping up.

Now, I know this might not work for everyone. It takes a lot of get out from under the cloud or turn a new leaf after mental health issues, but you have to. Your life depends on it, and you could help so many with the experiences that you have gained.

A lot of other people’s mental health situations have popped up around me lately. My coworkers have talked to me about their depressions, my mother’s moods have been going up and down (oh, yeah, I get it from her), and mental illness stories have been popping up on my feeds. This has to be for a reason: The reason is so my connection with myself and my community is never severed. Having a mental illness has made me more aware of the people and situations around me. I can never lose that.

So here is to feeling better and hoping to understand that there is light at the end of the tunnel. Once there, I’m going turn around, look back, and reflect, then turn back around and help someone. Here’s to you for doing the same.

Good luck, my friends!

OhTemp writes a blog called Bipolar, Unemployed, and Lost, which you can read at bipolarunemployedlost.com.

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