Mental health awareness is increasing, but mental health doesn't seem to be improving.
In fact, with COVID, mental health issues seem to be aggravating. Even problems that were once easy to overcome now seem like major hurdles. Some days you may feel like there's nothing - no motivation, no strength, no will to live.
With it, comes the toxic positivity:- "you have to be okay". "You are okay, these problems are not problems". "Other people have it so much worse."
But really!!, who says you have to be strong all the time?
It's difficult to accept that not being okay is okay, especially when society consistently expects you to be at your 100%,
It's only when you accept that you're not at your best that you can let yourself work through the sadness and figure out why you're feeling that way.
Yes, you should keep fighting to heal and get better, and you definitely shouldn't let yourself be consumed - but without the bad days, we don't get to truly appreciate our good days. Those bad days don't define us, just like our best days don't truly define us, either.
Most of the time we're pretty okay. Sometimes we're more than okay, and sometimes we're not okay. And that is also okay.