You really want the stigma of mental health to be erased, but you are not all that capable right now…

I am going to tell you a story of a little girl. She grew up in a household with two parents and a sibling who all loved each other dearly. One day, her mother told her, “Mommy and Daddy; We are getting a divorce”. She was then sent off to school that very same morning. That little girl’s world began to fall around her. The only way to bring peace in this chaos was to take it into her own hands. So, she got straight A’s and played well in sports and participated in many extracurricular activities. She struggled with her weight and dieting, and body image. Her parents could never work it out romantically, nor financially, so she saw both of those things in her life as poor examples of what relationship and marriage looks like. In her own adult life, she engaged in mediocre relationships and never learned how to accurately handle the problems on her own. Despite her brains, she always felt like she was losing.

Always operating and functioning highly, she attained the education she desired. However, the career and job she landed in was not the ‘forever job’. It was a tormenting, corporate environment that never stopped. Internally, she told herself that she could do it and it would be only for a short while. Externally, she became a displeased, sad, and dejected employee who rarely had time for her beautiful new family, let alone herself.

One day there was an amazing, supportive person that came to the rescue in the light of self-awareness and care. No shame was placed. No fingers were pointed. She was given relief of those exhausting duties for three weeks from this job. She really wanted more time, but hopefully time will tell, and God will show her where to go.

Mental health stigma does not define me. The little girl is me. Let’s show them all that it’s not worth it to drown yourself in work. Let’s show them that you and I can still be wonderful and brilliant and still sometimes need a break.

This is a story when I worked in a corporate work environment and was bullied by my manager. I was newly married, had stepchildren, and traveled frequently for work. Also, my spouse and I cared for my father who has dementia. It was a tough time. But I sought mental health counseling and took a break from my job. This eventually led me to leave the corporate world and start in a new job/career of my passion.