From Ignorance to Empathy: My Path to Grasping Mental Health

Mental health is a serious issue the world faces with

But I could just never get it

Honestly, In my teens, I always thought it was a struggle for people who don't have control over anything about their minds.

Like really mental people

I was seeing my idols giving up their lives due to this like Chester Bennington (Linkin Park) and Anthony Bourdain(Celeb chef)

This injected me with the realization that this must be really serious but never impacted me personally so I didn't care much

It is what it is  

Not until I realized some of the closest people to me started revealing their struggles with it

Then it really hit me

I am a curious person in general

Just giving things a shot

But this wasn't something to just give a shot at

It impacted me in a big way

It was serious

So, I studied it, and read a lot online

Watched every single ted talk on EQ and mental health

Crawled google's deepest points

Started talking to psychologists who I knew

Having conversations with my dear ones struggling with it

Words like therapy, counseling, trauma, emotions, empathy, patterns, and subconscious, became a part of my new vocabulary

A whole wide view opened up

My perspective started changing  

I used to be patient and kept my ears and mind open

So much to understand and comprehend which helped me in my daily life too

So much to analyze and predict so I can be of help to myself and others

I felt bridging the gap to the opposite side of the curtain

My journey from ignorance to empathy when it comes to mental health has been both transformative and ongoing

More importantly, I learned about myself

How I am the way I am

What impacts me and what doesn't

It's a never-ending journey of self-reflection and learning

But still, I always felt something was missing

I had not much idea still, just a perspective

I could never empathise but I started getting it

It was a slow process, but I was persistent

I understood it takes in a lot of factors, variables and situations

From childhood to your environment

Everything mattered and has to be accounted for

A self-discovery process

As I reflect on this I have come a long way

It transformed the lens through which I view relationships, decisions, and self-growth.

I became much more compassionate and had an even more open-minded presence

All this led me to believe that there is always hope at the end of the tunnel

How long or short it may be is all up to you

It's everyone's own journey through it

All you can do is

Just Be there

-Arnav "mental" MJ