Assalamualaikum and hi everyone, how are you guys doing? I hope everything went well for you guys. This is another story of my self-recovery journey but at the same time, I want to help whoever reading this. If you are new here, welcome I am Sarah and I share a lot about my experience in discovering self-love. I also do anime reviews, drama reviews, and song reviews but that rarely happens since I'm not doing well. but maybe we will see those content soon.
Disclaimer!
I am not a professional, a therapist, counselor nor psychiatrist. I have no qualification in advising people on mental health matters. This entry is made from my point of view and meant to be a discussion topic.
If you read past entries, you will see how I was reluctant and giving lots of excuses in seeking help. I feel like I got it under control and maybe it's just a phase. But the phases haven't ended yet. I can't take a risk of losing more and I think I make the right choice by signing up for therapy. In the last 2 entries, I talk about my mental health screening, which I am very glad to attend because it makes me understand myself a little bit more. On the same night after the screening, I decided to register for a therapy session.
My first therapy session was on 2nd July 2021. It is an experience to go through the session. I will not go into the session much because I don't think it is appropriate to share with you guys my problems. But I am really glad that I choose to go through this therapy because I can finally let out everything that I have latent. One thing that I realize, I've been hurt for too long. My regrets, anger, sense of hopelessness, helplessness are already inside me for years. It is not because of the current event that happens to me. It's a build-up of everything that I went through. I was being hard on myself because of what has been happening to me. My body and brain were used to it.
When I was not feeling myself, feeling detached from reality, and so on, I never understand why. Try to heal without knowing what was the root to it is just useless. It is almost self-sabotaging. I was trying to be "positive" all this time because I thought that was the right attitude to heal. I was wrong. It is toxic positivity. The evidence is clear on my blog. I post a lot of entries encouraging people to be positive blindly without giving proper advice. Yes, positivity is needed but you need to understand that you are having a problem. Thinking positive all the time is just like pushing away all your problems, putting them aside and eventually, they'll come back and find you. It is an unsettling feeling. I will review my blog and take down every entry that promotes positivity blindly. Because I believe it is not helpful.
I talked to a few of my friends about getting therapy and some of them feel like it is unnecessary to go for therapy. Therapy is not only for people that are struggling with depression, anxiety, or any other mental illness. But it is a tool to help us understand more about ourselves and assists us in any life matter. Some people feel like seeking help is a sign of weaknesses and sadly some people feel like they got everything under control but they are showing a clear sign of struggles. I used to be one of them. I don't blame them because "seeking help" is not in our culture, therapy is not being normalized, mental awareness is still low.
I want you guys to know, you are not weak. Seeking help is not for a weak person. It makes you a strong person. You are strong! you survive every single day, fighting to get up from your bed, fighting to get better every single day. Getting help took a lot of courage.
So, do you need therapy? The answer might be yes. If you find yourself struggling to go through everyday life, being productive, you need the therapy. If you find yourself a keep making yourself busy to distract yourself from your problems, yes you need therapy. If you find yourself overthinking a lot, you need therapy. If you ever thought that "Everything will be better if I'm dead" you clearly need help. Also, a normal and mentally stable person will never make "suicide" or "dying" jokes.
If you are not interested in therapy, you got another option by going to a psychiatrist to get diagnose and take medications. You can go to your nearest Klinik Kesihatan and talk to them, if your symptom is severe they will give you a referral letter to see a psychiatrist at the hospital. You also can get a referral letter from private clinics.
Therapy can be expensive, but currently, there are a lot of services that offer therapy at affordable prices. Some of them are negotiable and some of them offer therapy specifically for B40 people. Personally, I went to Aloe Mind because the price is affordable and I am satisfied with their service. If you want more information about their service feel free to check out their website or visit their Instagram at @aloe.mind or if you have any questions regarding mental health issues and you can just hit me up on my personal Instagram @sarahisyah_
Let's create a better place for people to talk about their mental health and be kind to everyone. Share with me your thoughts on seeking help in the comment section down below and see you guys in the next entry!