As 2024 winds down to an end, I am starting to realize that I am putting behind me with this year a nasty chapter of my life where I was not caring for my mental health in the way that I needed to. It was a constant six-year fight of fighting my mental health and understanding that I deserved the independence that I so desired with the quality of life that I so deserve.

There have been treatments that have been proven to work before I moved out on my own over six years ago and my disregard for adhering to them was just nonsense on my part and I have finally understood that not doing so has its consequences so much that no matter how much I work at camouflaging myself from the symptoms, there is just a deep sense of discomfort that I no longer want to feel. It is a part of my life that I must continue to work on. Yes, it will be a process that is constant, but part of that is also my responsibility to do what is right for me and those around me who expect nothing but the person that they know me to be.

The reality is that this year has taught me that no matter how I slice the way of not caring for myself it comes back to bite me in some way or another. Therefore, it is best to just do what I need to do to be cognizant of my mental health and work at fighting the symptoms of the side effects by taking care of myself in the way that I need to as I should have done all along. It can be hard to admit the need to do that, but it has been something that has been a part of the struggle and even though I have experienced symptoms that I both liked and disliked, there is nothing like having the quality of life that being adherent to my mental health treatment can provide.

There are the things that I don’t like and can also be a battle to fight to get through the day, but I must do more at combatting my struggles by finding more things to do on my own to keep busy when I have down time so I do not fall into habits that can set me off course and make me frustrated. There are goals for me in 2025 that I want to meet along with keeping up with the traditional milieu that will continue to keep me busy. It is realizing that I must be more adamant about working at combatting the battles of mental health and doing what I need to do to stay well, no matter what I want to believe is going to make me stray away from the norm.

I am ready to put the past negative habits that have been caused by me not caring for my mental health for the past six years. It is something that in a way I needed to know so that I understand the dangers of not caring for myself while seeing the Importance of caring for myself continuously, regardless of what I once believed. There is a time to move on and this is the time to do it. There is so much potential in my life that it is possible, and I am ready to see more of that even if it is not what I initially had in mind for myself. There is a higher power that will allow me to see where I continue to go from here, but ultimately it being cognizant of my mental health so I can be my best self.