As you all know, the theme of world mental health day of 2023 is Our minds, our rights which is a basic human right for all people and it’s okay to feel the depth of our emotions.

So, I would like to share my story to the world in hope of increasing awareness and encourage others to open up about their own struggles.

Please remember to always check on your loved ones cause you never know if the person needs help.

As far as I can remember, everyone around me used to tell me that I was very shy, but I was actually struggling with anxiety considering that my dad moved out to a different city, due to his job, when I was around six years old which also led me to have separation anxiety. This disorder made it hard for me to make close friends at school cause I was always too scared of them leaving or me feeling left out.

After becoming a teenager, I started focusing more on my studies since I’ve had this fear of disappointing my parents, I started basing my self-worth on grades to the point of developing an eating disorder. thankfully my mother began to notice how much weight I had lost and the change of my attitude. She tried to provide me with therapy, but I refused cause I was scared of opening up to a stranger, but I knew that I had to step out of my comfort zone and try to seek help. my healing progress was tough I tried a lot of things like journaling, listening to podcasts, developing healthy habits and more importantly, loving myself and appreciating small things. Little by little and step by step I started prioritizing my health over everything else. I made various of friends intuitively and also did better in school than when I was struggling.

I can’t deny that getting better seems scary, we tend to like the comfort that our problems give us, but we can’t rely on it forever since it might destroy us or even the people who care about us. After my personal experience I could say that healing is a long journey but it’s definitely worth it!

Written by Abdelwafi Douae

Guest Writer @Poemstellium for World Mental Health Day 2023