This Friday is Valentine's Day and as such we feel it is an important opportunity to talk about the impacts that this day can have on our mental health.
It can be a time when we may be surrounded by the ‘perfect ideals’ of relationships whether that be seen through TV, social media, shops, or even just throughout your everyday life.
Even for those who aren’t celebrating Valentine's Day, it can be hard to avoid. Days celebrating love and togetherness can often be difficult for many people. This is because it may highlight feelings of loneliness, difference or even how low you may be feeling at the time.
This is why at Burton and District Mind, we choose to use Valentine's Day as more of an opportunity to share important advice, that could help those who may be struggling with any of the feelings previously mentioned. That way, we can get through what could be a difficult day, together.
As such alongside this blog post, you may see some of our social media posts talking all about this so be sure to give our pages a follow if you have not already!
(You can find all our pages here -> https://linktr.ee/burtonmind)
When we see all this advertising for Valentine's Day or see these pictures of people celebrating it can be so easy for us to fall into that thing of wishing we could be experiencing that too, and these kinds of feelings can be so negative for our mental health.
So, what can you do this Valentine's Day to support your mental health?
The most important thing you can do is learn the value of enjoying time with yourself, which may seem a bit of a strange thing to say but it does help! By this we mean, making sure to go out (not just on Valentine's Day) and still doing the things that you want to do, but may not do out of wanting to do it with someone.
For example, you may associate things like eating out, going out on day trips, and going to the cinema as things to do with someone else, but they are all things you can do by yourself too! And this way you can properly focus on doing the things that you enjoy.
It can sometimes be easy to limit the things that you do, out of worry people may judge you for being alone too, however often people will take no notice. They’ll just see someone out enjoying themselves! Additionally, getting out and experiencing your interests it may help start conversations with others with those shared interests and you could make some new friends.
And just because you don’t have a current romantic relationship, it doesn’t mean you are alone. You also could have friends who may be in a similar situation to yourself so why not take this opportunity to see if they would be interested in going out and doing something! That way you can support each other, which could help you with any feelings of loneliness that you may be experiencing on this day.
If you have low self-esteem already, seeing these idealised relationships can be difficult and make you feel as if you are not good enough.
It is so important to not base your self-worth on whether you are in a relationship, which we understand is easier said than done.
Additionally, you may have had past negative experiences in relationships that make seeing all these things on TV or social media difficult too. It can be a painful reminder of any trauma you have experienced.
Here is a real-life story of someone who experienced trauma in a past relationship and the steps she took to get through such a difficult time
Trigger Warning – Abuse/Suicide
Read Natasha’s Story!
We really do commend Natasha for sharing her story and hope that reading it may be helpful to anyone who may be experiencing similar.
This Valentine's Day if you are struggling and finding things difficult, please remember that you are not alone. Even if you don’t have a support network in place, there is still help available, which we will list below…
Burton and District Mind. Our office will be open this Friday so please do reach out to us. You can find our contact information here -> https://www.burtonmind.co.uk/contact-us
Our Safe Haven Crisis Café will be open -> https://www.burtonmind.co.uk/safehaven
Sign up to Mind’s Side by Side Online community -> https://www.mind.org.uk/information-support/side-by-side-our-online-community/
Samaritans – for everyone 24hrs a day Call 116 123 free to call jo@samaritans.org
Shout Crisis Text Line- for everyone 24hr - Text "SHOUT" to 85258
Together we can get through this!
Yorumlar