At a meeting I went to tonight, they were talking about the goal of the organization being to help give young girls the tools make healthy decision and to avoid things like substance abuse, eating disorders and depression, among other things.
For me, I've gone through a personal struggle, dealing with bouts of depression for a number of years. In my upbringing, mental illness was something to be ashamed of and avoid talking about. It didn't exist.
But when I was at this meeting, I kept thinking "I never want any young girl to go through the struggles I've dealt with". Things that happened years ago still haunt me some days. The patterns I learned when I was younger are still with me today. It's a constant struggle to break the cycle I continue to go through.
Girls today deal with so many different things than what I dealt with growing up. I can't even imagine being a teenager nowadays. I don't think I could handle it.
Even though there has been progress, we still see a stigma regarding mental illness. No one lives a perfect life, regardless of the face they put on for the rest of the world to see. On a regular basis, I think about how I don't ever want other women to hate their body the way I do, constantly question themselves or not be able to pull themselves out of bed some days.
As we've started the holiday season, my struggle has become tougher. It'll require me to work extra hard mentally to overcome the urge to just go to sleep. I have to push myself to make sure I follow my running schedule (oops on tonight...my dog missed me). But I also have to know when to push myself and when to breathe and just relax. And I haven't quite found that balance yet.
Some days are better than others. Sometimes the weirdest little thing will cause me to be sad. Sometimes I won't even care. But at the end of the day, I put one foot in front of the other and keep trying to move forward.
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