Flawed Perfection
Editor's note: Thank you, Artjola for sharing your story and thoughts on mental health stigma.
I come from a very small country. I just turned 20 years old. I have been battling anxiety for the last year and a half. It has changed my life completely. It has changed me completely.
The hard part is not only battling with anxiety but battling with everything else that comes with it. The questions, the rude comments, the lack of understanding, the expectations others have of you and your battle. Their opinions on your coping ways and the doubtful looks and comments about your illness.
Yes, it is an illness. No, I am not crazy.
I have had the toughest year of my life --the scariest. But the most teachable and rewarding.
Anxiety has brought so many bad things into my life, but it has brought so many good traits too.
I have learned to love myself. To appreciate how strong I am. How, if I just have a little hope, there is nothing I can't do or achieve.
“It has taught me to love the little moments where I am feeling completely calm, safe, and happy.”
I have not yet learned how to explain to people what anxiety is or what it is like having it, but I don't have to. I am the one fighting the battle.
It helps not to listen to what others have to say. It helps to get help. To do it for you. For all the amazing things you were born to create and to do. To everything your mental illness is telling you that you can't do.
Having a mental illness such as anxiety or any other does not make you less of anything, it actually makes you more compassionate, more kind towards others, more understanding, and more appreciative of everything that makes you feel even a little better.
It really does tire you, the ongoing war with your mind. But we are strong enough to handle it. We need to break the stigma that surrounds mental health. We need to spread awareness and to get help, regardless of everything else.
We are strong. We are brave. We can most definitely do it.
Why is it important for you to share your story and experiences with mental health and illness?
It is important for me because I know how lonely and scary battling with a mental illness can make you feel, so I want to help others by sharing my story of hope.
- Artjola
Prishtina, Kosova
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