[THREAD] I saw a few of us saying that their 2021 resolution was to improve their mental health. So I decided to write this guide in terms of what steps we can take to improve our mental health for 2021 and beyond. The most important step is to start some form of treatment.

While finances can be a huge barrier to getting treatment, there are a few things around that. Medications (especially those that have been around for a while) are generally much cheaper because they exist in generic form. They are safe, have decades of research behind them.

Antidepressants are not addictive at all and while there are a few side effects at the beginning, they tend to go away after the first few weeks. While it is hard to get rid of superstition and myths around meds, taking that first step of just taking it will help so much.

For therapy, there are always some free or low cost options. Sometimes, there are students about to graduate from their post grad who offer free or low cost therapy as experience (under the supervision of a fully licensed psychologist and legally).

They are the equivalent of a resident doctor, meaning they have the knowledge and expertise but lack the experience and both of you can benefit from working with each other. I remember when I was in that position and worked, I had my supervisor guide through every client.

Second, we need to be serious about our self-care. Everyday as much as possible, we take 2 hours a day for ourselves. It doesn’t matter what others may say or how they react about it. Our brains deserve that rest to be able to give us the best they can offer.

Also, let’s get into the habit of writing down a few lines to describe our day, emotions and some thoughts we went through. It can help your future therapist a lot with identifying patterns and will help you see whether things are getting better or not.

Having a few lines about sleep, food intake, thoughts, emotions, triggers, overall score of the day won’t take a long time but can be so beneficial down the line because we can’t remember how things went down exactly a week or month down the line.

Another way to help our mental health is to get into the habit of externalizing our experiences. There is no need to repress it or keep it all in. Talk out loud even if it is to yourself, scream in a pillow, write it down, whatever works for you is valid.

We need to reduce how much of that pain we carry with us and the best way to do that is to externalize it as it happens. We don’t want it to come back to bite us years down the line when we can’t even remember what we repressed.

Also, let’s be a little kinder to ourselves. Even if our thoughts tell us we are not worth it, we all need to be kind to ourselves and love ourselves a little more, regardless of work or study achievements. They are not rewards for achievements but appreciation for existing.

Finally, let’s make the year 2021 the year that we disconnect as much as we can from toxic people. We have all been through such a hard time, we don’t need to add toxic people who damage our mental health. Mute, block, anything that works for you to be able to move on.

I hope that you will be able to feel much better and appreciate yourself just the way you are because you are AWESOME. Maybe your parents or some people won’t see it, but I do. Whenever I interact with you all, I am in awe of what amazing you all are. You deserve the best