Mental illness and self-stigmatisation: Learning to accept how you are for who you are.

[Kurosawa19]

Hi

Living with severe mental illness can be tricky. It can affect your confidence and your self-esteem. In other words your ability to be accept who YOU are and what YOU want to achieve can be distorted.

Living with serious illness generally means being on medication. Finding the right medication for you can take a long time. It took me nearly 20 years! The realisation that you've found the medication that works for you is a powerful step towards empowerment of self: the medication has "got your back". With this knowledge you can start to like yourself more and focus on what you want to occupy your time: work-time and leisure time. You may also want to work with a psychotherapist or counsellor. This action can reinforce some of the positivity you're experiencing. In other words as you are restructuring "yourself" a counsellor can help you with putting down strong foundation stones. This can then enable you to feel more confident in your own ability to cope with you condition and short or long-term goals you would like to achieve and conquer!

None of this is going to be easy. It sounds corny but you really are "worth it". It's not your fault that you have a mental health diagnosis, that is true. You are still a human being. You deserve just as much a shot at happiness or self-actualusation as the next person. Look up "Maslows Hierarchy of Needs" for more information on how to build a better version of yourself, the best version of you that you can be.

We are social creatures, we all have a need to belong and have an understanding of our niche in society. We all want to believe and recognise that the efforts we are making can be acknowledged by others and by ourselves. Being able to love ourselves can enable others to be able to love us. Let life begin with all its experiences, good and bad!

Keep on believing in yourself.

Kind regards

Kurosawa19

[MAS_Nurse]

Hi Kurosawa19 and a warm welcome to this caring forum where you will receive support from other members. Thank you for your very positive post. I am sure that other forum members will also find this very positive and also true. I remember "Maslows Hierarchy of needs" when I did a teaching course. Please can our members pop by and say hello to Kurosawa19?

Thank you and best wishes.

[Kurosawa19 in reply to MAS_Nurse]

Hello MAS_Nurse

Yes, of course, other members are very welcome to pop by and say hello

Being new to the site I might have got the privacy settings set up wrongly.

Kuroasawa19