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Mental Health over Studies: A Privilege, Not an Option

In the last years, mental awareness was considered as 'over sensitivity', where everyone is required to keep their personal difficulties to themselves, it was treated as something 'sacrosanct' or like menstruation in women. It's a sad past, really.


Well, there are changes with time. This generation has been more open to changes that most people prioritize their mental health than the last generations. Everyone seemed to understand that we have personal battles with our demons, and that's fascinating. It's like everyone knows that we are going through or have gone through a rough road. The "I understand you"s, "I know how that feels"s, and "you're not alone"s. But not everyone can be open about their mental and emotional states, it can be something very private and/or sensitive. Some people mostly feel that sharing these topics makes them exposed and almost naked.


Mental health can really affect one's actions, responses, and thinking, and sometimes one develops unhealthy habits (Ah, well from experience too). There are people who actually found an answer to this occurring issue— negligence. I can say it's THE forbidden way or i-had-no-choice form rather. Caring about our mental health can be exhausting and time-consuming, considering that we have our own priorities; studies, work, family, etc. negligence might be the only way to not dwell on it. Some even think of it(mental health) as a 'hindrance' to their routines (including me), then how did it become one in front of realistic eyes?


Let me give an accurate situation, call it a witnessed situation or whatever:

One person, who has priorities including studies. That person has kept a constant pattern of living, then vacation approached meaning more time to themself. This is the time of realization, of course, it would heavily affect their actions and thinking. Everything could change by just having time for thinking. Some get tired of thinking, and wished for it to stop, what do they do? They make activities that will become habits. To get rid of lingering thoughts, they tend to do practices to divert themselves. They don't face it, they ignore it.





The butterfly effect states that small changes in initial conditions can lead to large-scale and unpredictable variations in the future state of the system. One's mental well-being can affect one's actions and thinking, which can further affect their life. If there are concerns about it, seeking professional help is definitely recommended, only if you finally let go of worldly responsibilities (or have enough money and courage). Realistically, one can focus solely on their mental fitness IF their boldness or courage is enough to outweigh the negativities it can cost. "Why are there negativities when it(resting for the sake of mental health) can actually improve your well-being?" It's because you had to temporarily let go of the things that influenced/affected your thinking and behaviour. It means focusing exclusively on yourself and trying to get yourself(the way you think and behave) back where it's safe and healthy. Are you ready for that?


Personally speaking, no I'm not. I'm a very skeptical person, practical too. I always put in my head that my feelings should not and will never intervene with everything I do. With that, I could get hurt less, or not at all. I know how unhealthy it is, I'm very much aware of it(oh too aware to be exact), in fact, I don't care at all. Dwelling on things is very dangerous. This came from multiple realizations based on experiences. Dwelling makes you think of negative or(better) positive things. It makes you think of the worst or best things, It makes you feel the heart's heaviness or lightness, and makes you contemplate about existing or living. It interfered with my studies, and I felt terrible. It didn't last considering the amount of courage and boldness I acquired from scratch. It wasn't easy to overcome these emotions and occurrences, there is a huge tendency for hindrances to appear if you try to deal with them. This is where you choose between your mental well-being and your physical life.


Taking a break; focusing on self either physical, cognitive, social, or spiritual well-being is not an option for most people, it's a privilege from the start. Why? These people had to strive harder without taking a break in order to achieve their own definition of success. It's like "No, I can't rest 'cause I still have a long way to go and I have to work harder and harder.". It's never easy to let go of things, even if they have affected your mentality. Maybe because they became part of your previous routines, or it's 'normal' in your life already. Decreasing the practice of unhealthy habits or slowly getting rid of them may feel like you're removing a part of yourself, it can be because there's attachment involved between you and that habit. But as I believe, that in order for us to grow, we need to momentarily let go of things that can consume us, that we can't control.





Mental Health negligence has been my best friend for most of my years of living. I find it very convenient, with no emotions hindering, I feel very professional, and you'll expect no hard feelings from me or any present grudges. A people pleaser yet authoritative. I have a strong perspective that can actually obstruct emotions from taking place. And that's where the negligence took place. I came into thinking that I'm satisfied with my life, how I interact, react, think, etc. and you know, I do believe I was occupied with responsibilities and leisurely activities to care enough about what's going on in my head, and I still am, but this time I'm aware. I am fully (but not completely, does that make sense) aware, I even know what's the primary cause of whatever it is but it is indeed hard to take action. Continuing life seems to be slightly harder than before because there are thoughts that will connect you to realizations of your past. Oh, this is heavily from experience.


In this blog, I don't imply that we should fully ignore our personal issues because growing means acknowledging and better, facing our inner self and what hatred it has. There have to be the smallest steps of improvement if you recognized the problems, you need to somehow correct bad habits(in your inner and outer self) in your way of living. Well, it's not easy either. Acknowledging and doing something about it are two different things. It's easier to acknowledge, harder to make a move. It's because courage still has to be found, there is fear of getting hurt and even pride. But it's better to take small actions of improvement than ignorance, maybe in the way, there'll be realizations that you're not able to find before. And with that, you can't entirely say that you neglect your cognitive fitness.





A very important note: I do not claim that everything in this blog episode is accurately true, we have our own different experiences and situations encountered, but we may have similarities in the general summary of certain experiences. We can be similar in what we felt or what we think about this topic. This is purely the author's idea and perspective of the concept, I wrote what I observed of people's acts and what I thought about it. This is me breaking my silence. If you're, in any way, offended about anything in this blog, oh well. I am open to your additional thoughts and views about this. Thank you for reading!



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