It has been six years since I have been living on my own and much of that time has been spent when I was not in the best place mentally. At the start of this year, I began to see what benefits could be provided if I had just followed the orders that were given to me and understood the reality of what could happen if I continued down the path that I was going down without having the wake-up call that I needed to have.

Without a doubt living independently gives you the opportunity to make your own decisions. However, for me I far too long took that too vivaciously and as such have paid the price far too many times for things because I was not taking care of my mental health. I have started to realize that there are more opportunities to arise when I am taking care of my mental heath instead of following down the path that always had me in a precarious position many times over.

In 2025 I began to see many signs of what could happen if I was not taking care of my mental health by doing what was necessary, including taking my medication, something that I battled with over the past six years because I thought it was more problematic than what it was when in fact it wasn’t as bad as it seemed, that I just needed to get back on track and see the difference it could make in me if I was patient with myself and did other things to improve my mental health alongside the medication to make my life more of a success.

While seeing the dangers and understanding the realities if I was in precarious situations that caused the things that I find comfort in being taken away from me among other consequences happening, along with other things that could not have a good outcome, I realized that I needed to be serious about my mental health, taking care of it and doing what is right for me because I realized that all the times that things were concerning was when I was not caring for myself in the way that I needed to.

Beginning to see that things were beneficial and all the myths that I believed were proven false gave me the reality that things were set in place for a reason, and I needed to adhere to them for many reasons other than ones that I wanted to believe in my mind because they were not valid. It is having the conversation that I needed to have to know that I have to adhere to my medication regimen because it is necessary and provides me with the quality of life that I need to have to do the things that I want and need to do in the future.

Some things in life we have to live and learn, and the past six years have been that. I realize that there can be some pretty big consequences for my actions and that things like medication are a necessity when it comes to navigating the outside world. While some things may not be desirable, it is working to combat some of the things that are burdensome to manage from spiraling out of control, but in the end doing what is right matters because it is what makes me well.