When you’re going through a hard time mental health wise, it seems impossible to get up and do something to help it. It’s hard, everything takes 10xs the energy, you don’t have any motivation and you certainly don’t have any dedication. Its where mental illness gets a bad name, that people write it off as a laziness problem. It isn’t a laziness problem, but tackling one thing on your list can help you break through the chemical fog that’s taken over your brain.

Depression, severe anxiety, they are all consuming. I’m not suggesting you can “fix” it easily or with a few simple steps. I know you can’t, but as I’ve written about time and time before there are ways you can help yourself slowly move towards a better mental state.

But what is going to force you to do it? To dance to an upbeat song, to sit outside in the sun for a little bit, to get out of bed and get dressed nice, to clean the kitchen, to do the laundry, to call the doctor, to reach out to a friend, to wash your hair.

That’s the hard part, you have to be your own obnoxious mental health advocate. You have to nag yourself, you have to push through your own fog, you have to force your own hand. And you have to be rude and obnoxious about it or your mental illness is simply going to to dismiss you.

It’s easier when you have a friend, spouse, or parent, pushing you to do one small step. You start to feel a little obligated, even if it’s just to make them be quite. The problem is we’re really good at silencing ourselves. We’re pro at it. So we silence that voice instead of amplifying our own nagging self.

But to break through you have to commit, you have to move forward with the rants and with the screaming. It’s difficult but you can do it. I’m not asking you to nag your mental illness away. I’m asking you to nag yourself forward a single step toward wellness. Then once you do it, well I’m asking you to nag yourself another single step forward. This is how we start to walk, sometimes with and without professional help, but we always have to concur this step.