Not Your Average Mental Health Op-Ed

There has been a lot of talk about mental health recently, or at least I’ve been exposed to a lot of it. My reaction in the past has often been to blow off much of this talk as overreaction; I’ve been dealing with these types of problems since I was in elementary school. But lately as new tensions surface, I’ve been reflecting more and more on who I am as a person and how I got here.I’m going to come right out and say this: I’ve had obsessive compulsive disorder for as long as I can remember. A couple years ago, I was diagnosed with ADHD and for most of the 8th grade, I was under a spell of depression, although it was never diagnosed. I grew up always being the weird loud kid who talked too much. The most common word used to describe me in middle school was “annoying” (and to this day, the word still irks me). I lived through these things, and until recently, they were pushed to the back of my mind. But with the rise of new questions about my identity, I came to the realization that my mental health issues have molded me into the person I am today.For a great length of time, I have battled compulsions, things that I found myself doing whether I wanted to or not. In my younger years, I would often blurt things out without thinking about them. I also struggled with a compulsive sense to complete things fully, made evident through my thorough playing of video games. But because I struggled (and sometimes still struggle) with these compulsions, I’ve learned greater self restraint in other areas. I have gained experience in telling myself no and often do not give in to temptation as a result of this.In addition to the struggles with OCD and ADHD, my battle with depression changed my life. I have learned from the many mistakes I made during that time period, and my entire analytical way of thinking stems from the experience I had with raw emotion in 8th grade.Now I understand that it isn’t easy to cope with mental illnesses. I especially sympathize with guys such as myself, who often have to hide their struggles from each other because of the expectation of masculinity. The best way to get through these things, in my experience, is to find a group of people who you can trust with your problems, and who you know will support you. It’s sad, but there will be a lot of people who will not do this for you, whether they refuse to do so or just don’t understand. The goal is to find people who can and will help you, and establish a clear relationship on mutual support.But having good friends will not necessarily fix your problems. Unfortunately, there is no surefire way to beat a mental illness. In my case of depression, having friends I could talk to just didn’t cut it. In fact, some of my friends were actually the root of the problem. In order to escape this, I had to make a hard decision: to separate myself from my friends. Often times, the hardest part of recovery is to recognize that the people around you are only hurting you and sever ties.One thing that I had to come to terms with through all of this is that my mental illnesses are a part of me. I will always have a disadvantage over people who do not experience these things. But with this disadvantage comes a strength as well. In fighting to overcome these challenges, you strengthen yourself, and you train yourself to be better. Having these illnesses changes who you are as a person, and with enough willpower, that change can be for the better.