Grace C.
If you’re reading this, never be afraid to ask for help.
Mental health has long been a stigmatized topic in our society, with many of us being taught to bury our feelings and see reaching out as a sign of failure. For me, this silence was deafening. Amidst feelings of anxiety, I would look around and think, “No one else looks like they are feeling this way, so what is wrong with me?” The lack of conversation was isolating and forced me to overanalyze my feelings.
For a long time, I dealt with feelings of anxiety and was never able to pinpoint or label it. I lived with a baseline of anxiety that consumed everything I did, but I thought that was normal. I would brush my feelings aside and say to myself, “You’re being overdramatic.” This pattern persisted, ultimately reaching its peak during my Sophomore year at Michigan. Living in a sorority house during COVID was far from an ideal situation for me and exacerbated my anxiety to its worst. I slowly started feeling more and more anxious until I couldn’t handle it anymore. The breaking point occurred while on a family vacation to Florida. During this vacation, I felt more alone than ever, and I began bickering with my siblings and parents and isolating myself due to my extreme feelings of anxiety.
After this trip, I began my journey with therapy. I met with a therapist and was extremely lucky to have found a great match on my first try. Within my first session, I could feel myself releasing the pent-up emotions that I had held inside for so long. Through therapy, I have had the opportunity to grow in multiple facets; I gained new perspectives on how to tackle problems, engage in relationships, and deal with conflict, which has undoubtedly helped me become the person I am today. I am extremely proud of my growth. I used to think that I would attend therapy for as long as it took me to feel “normal.” However, I know that I will never be done with this work - it will be a lifelong journey. I have shifted my perspective to understand that going to therapy is a way to invest in myself and guarantee that I don’t fall back into my old habit of letting the problem get to its worst point before asking for help.
If I have learned anything from this experience, it is that asking for help is not a weak choice but instead the strongest thing you can do for yourself. I have since instilled this lesson into many aspects of my life. For example, I have been able to ask for help in classes when I have been struggling with the material. The simple action of raising your hand can be the difference between silently suffering and gaining insights into the best path to work through your issues. Working through the fear of asking for help has truly transformed my life, and I can say that even though my experience was not the most enjoyable, I have come out the other side better because of it.
If you’re reading this… never be afraid to ask for help.
Grace C., University of Michigan
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