Embracing Complexity

I’ve come to find that much of mental health (perhaps life, too?) is finding the balance between a fine line.

There’s a cute little saying that I used to say when I was an elementary teacher and giving lessons on social and emotional learning. If you can name it, you can tame it. I took this saying to heart and for quite a while much of my mental health care was naming and sitting with what I was experiencing.

This was met with some wicked and intense postpartum anxiety after the birth of my son. So all of my naming was of anxiety. If you asked me anything about myself I was sure to tie in “anxious” somehow. My day revolved around managing my anxiety. I had little identity outside of the anxiety I was experiencing.

This naming went too far, the fine line was crossed. I was now in the realm of rumination and overidentification.

What I needed was to embrace the complexity of myself. Yes, I was anxious. That was unavoidable and was much of my experience those days. But, I was a multitude of other things, too, if I allowed myself that space to sit back and remember. I went through a beautiful healing journey in therapy during this time. Multiple things were discussed and addressed, but one of the most pivotal was my therapist encouraging me to remember that I was more than my anxiety.

So, I encourage you to do the same. Perhaps you feel your identity is summed up by saying you’re depressed, anxious, ADHD, bipolar, or OCD.

But, no one’s identity can be summed up with one word. There’s more to who you are. May you remember, embrace, and sit with the complexity of who you are. You aren’t ignoring your mental health by addressing your complexity, because it’s more than okay to remind yourself that your mental health is not solely who you are.