Mental health awareness through the eyes of a Millennial
Dhruv Agnihotri
Vice President - Cybersecurity Technology Services at Bank of America
For context, as a Millennial, thus far in life I've gotten to experience…
….and much more, all before the age of 35.
It's pretty easy to see how these events can have negative effects on one's mental health.
In February of last year, I finally got help and started seeing a therapist about mental health issues I've been having since 2017; something that was long overdue for me. When I recognized I was at a point that I needed to get help, I utilized my company's Employee Assistance Program.
After spending a decent amount of time in therapy, one discovery I've made is that I have what is known as Imposter Syndrome, a feeling of cyclically questioning your worth or feeling like you don’t know what you're doing. It's feeling like you've just skated by through pure luck, feeling petrified that regardless of whatever you've achieved up until this point, someone would eventually call you out on it.
Imposter syndrome is when you think you're not skilled enough, experienced enough, or qualified enough to justify being in your current situation, yet you are there and you have to figure a way out. It's not a fear of failure or fear of being able to do it, it's a fear of being discovered as a fraud.
I can remember sitting in my first onboarding meeting at my firm, listening to all these acronyms fly around and feeling like a five-year-old as I surreptitiously wrote them down in my notebook so I could look them up on Wikipedia right after the meeting.
However, after taking the initiative to finally prioritize my mental health, I realized that other people felt this way as well. Not only that, but Imposter Syndrome played a huge part in why I was reluctant to seek out help for mental health in the first place. I thought that going to therapy or even using the term "therapy" was something too extreme for my case, almost as if I didn’t deserve to use that word when talking about my struggles.
Eventually I came to terms that I had been a victim of the stigma around mental health. Since then, I've become truly passionate about reducing that stigma and normalizing conversations about it in everyday life. It's so common for people to block off time in their Outlook calendar for dentist appointments. I don't see why we shouldn't normalize doing the same for mental health/therapy appointments.
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Mental Health is something we all deal with. Paying attention to and seeking help for mental health is not all that different from physical health and should be treated with the same level of importance and credence. It's nothing to be ashamed of or take lightly. It's a continuous and iterative process that grows along with you as you move through life.?
Therapy has allowed me to spend a lot of time learning new things about myself. It's also allowed me to validate and *vocalize* a lot of internal feelings and expectations that I have not only for myself, but also for those who are active members of my life. I've also been able to put words to feelings that I have in my head; providing some structure to amorphous internal thoughts have helped to understand the root causes and carve a path to take the necessary steps in mitigating those issues.
Knowing yourself or obtaining the knowledge of yourself is an ongoing process. And it's certainly not easy. It's hard trying to fight the system, when you have certain boundaries, and you have to fight through so many elements to find out who you really are.?But everyday I'm working on myself. Everyday I'm trying to get knowledge. They say it takes 10,000 hours to master something? I'm getting close to that.
This month, I'm taking a special moment to celebrate a little over one year of making the conscious decision to put importance on learning and growing myself. And honestly, I couldn't be prouder with my results. I'm the best version of myself today in every single aspect than I've ever been before.
I'm not perfect, but I don't spend a lot of time now thinking "what if" or "why" because I'm actually content with "what is."
I guess that's happiness.
But the story is bigger than me. One thing is for certain, time waits for no one. All we can bring with us on our steadfast march into the future is our knowledge of our past and present. It is important to see what resources are available in helping with mental health and taking advantage of them. This month, take some time to recharge yourself just as much as you recharge your phone. They brought back the Mexican Pizza at Taco Bell....that may be a good way to recharge the mind, body, and soul....just maybe.
Happy Mental Health Awareness Month! Cheers to working together on normalizing the conversations and breaking the stigma.