Mental Health........ We all have it!

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Mental Health........ We all have it!

3rd May 2013 02:10 PM

Author: Katy Henry

It’s Mental Health Awareness month and it’s got me thinking... 

Thinking about the people I am lucky enough to know, whether they be patients, friends, family, work colleagues, business associates or me (and yes I do feel lucky to know me!)...  I know some pretty incredible people.  They are inspirational, caring, courageous, beautiful and have an inner strength that shines brightly, that they are often not even aware of.   I was going to say that they also suffer with mental illness but that does not feel right to say because it puts a label on someone.  And although that label can be useful to help diagnose and treat from a western medicine perspective it also puts a judgement on someone which is all too hard to escape.  We all have mental health, so it is possible for us all to experience good mental health, but also we are all vulnerable to experience times in our life when we struggle to maintain a sense of balance and well-being, thus suffering with mental ill health on some varying degree. 

Our mental well-being and how we react to events in our life can be triggered in so many ways.  Being bullied as a young person has a huge impact on the way we see ourselves and our developing self-confidence; dealing with the loss of a loved one and finding our way through the sometimes desperate journey of grief; living in constant pain; struggling to conceive a much longed for baby; working in a job that doesn’t fulfill you and triggers your stress responses day in, day out.  All these things and a plethora of others I haven’t even thought of have a huge impact on our mental health and well-being.

I have mental health.  Sometimes it’s good, sometimes I struggle.  I battled with low self-confidence in my teens and was then diagnosed with depression and underactive thyroid in my 20’s.  Tired all the time and feeling emotionally exhausted someone introduced me to an acupuncturist.  It was the first time someone took the time to listen to me and to understand what I needed.  Who I am, what’s important to me and how I respond to the world around me. 


My journey with acupuncture hasn’t always been perfect, but the peace of mind I have from knowing that I can sit with my practitioner, share my story (or not sometimes) and restore balance to my busy self is priceless to me.  I am led by my heart, I don’t want to change that, it’s what makes me the
person I am.  The stick that I used to beat myself up with, and the critical voice in my head that would fuel my vulnerability and damage my mental well-being are on the whole hushed with acupuncture, or at least put into perspective.  Discovering acupuncture has been one of the most life changing
events for me, so much so that I decided to train as a practitioner... and boy do I love my job!  It brings me joy every day and the sense of fulfilment when someone shares their story with me is overwhelming.  I just hope that they share a little of that feeling too.







Tags: Acupuncture, mental health

Treatments: Acupuncture

The views expressed in these blogs are those of the blog authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Bridge Centre for Natural Health.

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