Lets Talk About Mental Illness, Shall We?

Mental Illness-

I have a very deep personal experience with mental illness. Personally, I have dealt with multiple mental illnesses in my life, and I am happy to say I am thriving. I no longer suffer from such a disabling amount of depression, as well as anxiety. I still get anxiety from time to time, but it no longer controls my life. The assumptions that I carry in regards to the issue and the problems regarding mental illness come straight from my personal experience as well as experiencing and witnessing my friends handle their mental illnesses. So far I have already ton a tremendous amount of research on mental illnesses,
but I would like to continue my research directly into studies based off of college students and mental illness. I am prepared to find multiple views on mental illness, but I plan to do enough research to hopefully back up my own views and opinions on the topic.

College Spike-

Through my college years, it has been more and more obvious to me that not only me and my friends suffer from mental illness but many of my college classmates also were suffering from mental illness as well. Peak into one of the best articles I found on this subject. I think it puts everything so much more into perspective for what college students go through. Beyond school, there is so much going on in a person's life while in college. Dating, trying to find your identity, and so much more. This article does a great job at making the reader aware of all of the aspects that students have to balance. I appreciate how real and raw this article is. 

My Happy Place-

So what should one do if their mental health is kicking their ass? My go to has always been a good coffee shops are usually where I like to go study to get my mind off of hard things I am dealing with or just to get out of the house. Especially when I am having anxiety getting out of the house and going to study at a little coffee shop helped me tremendously. I know a few of my other girlfriends feel the same way too, so I wanted to test my hypothesis and see if there were a lot of students like me and my friends studying at a coffee shop, possibly dealing with mental illness, or maybe just there to study. Either way I wanted to check it out. I decided to grab my computer and head to Sunset Coffee in Sandy, Utah. This coffee shop is a little run down, and somewhat dirty, but it is a major hangout for college students in the Sandy, Midvale and Cottonwood area. I went later in the day and didn’t expect it to be super busy, I expected a few students studying like I had in the past, but boy was I wrong. There were groups of students on their computers doing homework. I made some observations, and jotted down some notes, I was mostly trying to see any emotional triggers within these students at the coffee shop. I noticed a few similarities between all of the students. Either they all had headphones in and were zoned in, or doing a group study but it just looked like they were chatting among themselves about what seemed wasn’t school related or they were just sitting on their phones completely ignoring the school work. Another big observation I made was a lot of the people in the coffee shop actually studying were women. Girls probably in their 20s. I noticed the major trend was a lot of girls looking kind of worn down and stressed or venting to their friends while doing school work. This reminded me a lot of me and my friends. Secondly, I noticed the guys there seemed either very into their computer, or just there to chat with the girls doing their school work. It seemed to be a very social scene. Overall I noticed a few signs of people who could be suffering from mental illness who wanted time away to drink coffee and work on school, but I also noticed many just at the coffee shop to hang with friends and not really focus on school.

Anyways, the second place that I rely on to help my mental health is the gym. Working out and getting a good sweat has always cheered me up when I'm feeling down. Once I'm in the gym working out and getting a good sweat with my music turned up all the way I feel a sense of calmness and my mind feels better. Overall, Going to the gym has been something that I have become thoroughly passionate about. I spend hours and hours at the gym at least 5 times a week, and ultimately is my form of meditation.  But going to the gym hasn't always been this way. The story of my growth of consumption of the gym started about 3 years ago when my anxiety and depression was at my worst. Now, I finally feel balance in my life again. I go to the gym when I want but usually around 5 times a week only for an hour or so, and have the freedom to eat what I want as well. I see a healthy balance in the gym and find myself the most content when I am there, and I have seen my growth from the past years and it fills me with pride. I love watching not only me but my dad who got me into the gym still progressing, and still going as much as we want and feel the need to. I know how much I love the gym, and how much the gym has saved me. Without the gym I don’t know if I would still be suffering from anxiety and depression. Knowing that the gym brings me so much happiness and peace, I will continue to consume the gym, and keep bettering myself in every aspect that the going to the gym brings me.