Does the perfect mental health day exist? What does that even mean?
I have been thinking a lot about this idea that there could be a day where I am free of all mental health issues– even if it were just for a day. It is an exciting thing, is it not?
The Perfect Mental Health Day
Google defines mental health as the following: “a person’s condition with regard to their psychological and emotional well-being.”
I was writing the other day about my recent struggles with social anxiety, and a thought occurred to me, “What would a perfect mental health day be like? Is that even achievable in this mental illness life?
The second thought in my mind was, “I am chasing a unicorn.”
I started to imagine it. No anxiety. No depression. No mania. No insomnia. I would sleep the night before and, for the first time in my life, not wake up feeling dread for the “where will mental illness take me today?” It would be no anxiety and no fear that my anxiety will lead to a panic attack. No feeling of dread that walking out my door and getting into my car to go somewhere without worrying about my anxiety or the possibility of a panic attack. A day without a mental illness.
I am not sure that such a day existed in my life, but I wasn’t always depressed. Up until about three years ago, social anxiety was not as much of an issue in my life. I have had days at a time without depression, anxiety, or even insomnia. But, I have had days where all my mental illness issues are fighting the battle for my soul. I can make the argument that it has all made me a stronger person, it is the truth, but I still struggle. I still have to remind myself to always keep fighting.
The truth is there is no cure-all for mental illness. How we continue to fight is by talking about the issues in places like WordPress. We figure out what triggers of our mental illness and find ways to better our mental health.
The “perfect mental health day” is a great idea, and maybe one day I will achieve this after this long road.
What are your thoughts about if “the perfect mental health day” is possible? I’d love to hear your thoughts.
I wanted to end this post with some positivity.
Love yourself first. Always Keep fighting.
James
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To me the perfect mental health day is one with clarity of mind, and a spring in my step. Days like this do exist; but sometimes they are a struggle to achieve. Yet, they are very, very possible and DO happen!
I hope to find mine one day.
I hope that you do!
I miss the days when my illness would go into full remission and stay there for a while. I’m rather dubious as to whether those days will ever return, but maybe the unicorn does exist.
That is always my worry.
My perfect Mental Health Day wouldn’t technically be a better day (mentally) for me. It would be a day that I felt comfortable w/ the people around me; a day where I felt like my family understood me.
That sounds like a good day to me, I hope you get there my friend.
DITTO
What an interesting concept. To be perfectly honest I don’t think I can dream that up because I know nothing else but anxiety, depression and ADD (I like to call it the trifecta lol). “Normal” is a luxury.. but I guess the perfect day would be having complete control over them and moving them aside to exist freely.. good food for thought.
It is interesting. For me it’s day where I sleep well (insomnia) and can deal with anxiety and depression.
Normal is a luxury.
It’s possible but hard. It’s difficult to totally push things out of your mind and focus on your self specifically your mental health. Just my opinion
I agree.
I think you simply just forget about all the responsibilities and daunting things you are supposed to face that day and just do whatever makes you happy. Like reading a book, watching shows or it can mean just hanging out with a friend. Whatever you suppose is going to make things better. <3 <3 <3
I do my best. I am still seeking the perfect day.
to be honest…..i don’t think there is such a thing as “perfect” . “Have no fear of perfection, you’ll never reach it.” – Salvador Dalí
The hope is always there, but in my brokenness it’s hard to see what it would take. It’s always in hindsight. Escape is important. Television, novels, guitar, getting away from the house to a coffeehouse are powerful ways to remind myself I am not my depression. You’re a dear man, and thank you for this post.
thank you for taking the time to read my blog. Those are all great things and would help the perfect day. I am thinking maybe it doesn’t have to be perfect, just better than my daily grind.
Even when I have a great day, I question wether this was just a day of having a better mask on. Accepting that I am normal or can have normal days is something I have yet to learn.
That is a great point. I always like to talk about masks because it becomes a way to just deal with the daily grind. Thank you for sharing this.
The thing is, it’s a two way dead end, if that makes sense.
When I was unwell it was impossible to imagine good mental health.
Now that I am well that version of me is really a stranger. He is nothing like me, I don’t really understand who he was, or what was driving him…
That’s not very helpful, but it’s like trying to describe a colour to a person with no vision, or the taste of raspberries warmed in the sun to a person from the Sahara.
You don’t wake up one day and have a great day. Shit still goes wrong, and you still get moments. But slowly you learn to get past it, and the effort that it takes up is less. Then one day a moment of panic or sadness hits, and I can see it come, and take action to stop it becoming everything I can think of.
I was very lucky, and was able to find the path to working on myself. It was hard, but I wouldn’t trade it for anything.
My best wishes for everyone out there working through it. Keep at it. It’s worth the wait. Life is beautiful.
Amen I could go on for a least a week and then BoOm 💥 my mind be like you’re going through again I really can’t handle it I talk myself through pray read my or listen to hyms
If we strive for perfection we are setting ourselves up to fail but if we can accept that this is the only ‘today’ that we will ever have, maybe we can find something perfect in it x
Yes, you must love yourself first before you can love anyone else.
Thats what I must learn to do.
It takes time. But you’ll get there. Be patient.
I find this post so incredibly interesting. I struggled with anxiety on a very small scale, and then about a year ago it morphed into full panic disorder with agoraphobia and depression. I sometimes have to laugh at myself because even only a year later, I look at the other people in my life who can do seemingly normal things without anxiety, and I cannot even remember what that feels like, nor can I imagine having that again. So I definitely relate to feeling like having that perfect day is chasing the end of a rainbow or a unicorn.
The perfect mental health day for me is where I don’t second guess every last thing in life, where I don’t have such extreme emotion for such little things and when I can just be in relationships without wondering when the other shoe will drop.
Those are the days that we all long. It would be nice to be able to have just one day like that!
I remember the days before knowing what my symptoms were and wish for days that are perfect however they do not last, so I enjoy the times I see ‘the unicorn’ and forget about the days I run toward it.
I have this image of the Kübler-Ross grief cycle as hurdles, the hurdles have no order, I aim to get to ‘acceptance’ but occasionally ‘denial’ or ‘depression’ reappear and I have to jump over them again. I will always be jumping these hurdles – I may write a post about this, Thank you James, love & light 🌟
Human brain, feelings and emotions are very complicated so it’s not easy to just switch on/off button and be anxiety-free…especially that we live n a society that is triggering all this and increasing our mental health disorders (very long subject) but we can certainly have some peaceful moments and we must decide and work on it by doing the things we love the most, maybe just sitting and watching the sea, maybe meeting some old friend, maybe just writing or reading….for this very short time when we decide we are just “this moment”, feeling each part of it with joy and serenity…we can have some moment of peace and calmness even if our problems persist, and we also need to change our perspective towards our problems despite how big they are…especially when we can’t change them at all