I bet a lot of you have, or know someone with a mental illness. There are so many out there to choose from- it’s like Honeydukes up in this shit with the beautiful varieties and concoctions of illnesses. PTSD, anxiety, depression, bipolar, eating disorders- so painfully many, and they just love to hang out together in little bitchy cliques.

What does this matter though? Well, if you fit into the people above that have to deal with mental illness, you know it fucking sucks. You might not wanna eat, you might wanna die, you might be so unstable with your emotions that you don’t sleep for three days and your room mate has to threaten to knock you out with a bat. Mental illness affects every day life, and even good days can be a struggle.

I myself have been diagnosed with BPD (borderline personality disorder), PTSD, anxiety and depression for literally a decade now. It has had its bouts of good and bad, but for the most part- it’s been bad. I struggled to get through University, I made bad decisions (none of them as bad as Lena Dunham’s entire career, but still fairly catastrophic).  I’ve learned a lot from this- mostly, that I needed help. To also cut myself slack.

I struggle with the slack cutting. A type A, J personality type to the max, I want to be and have to be the best. Which means a lot of the time my fear of failure or not achieving the standard I want for myself means…I get nothing done. My illness literally sits there, flipping me off whilst mooning me.

So today is a pep talk to you, me, and everyone else out there- it’s alright to mess up. It’s fine to not do your best. It’s not fucking fine to not try at all. So haul your ass up, turn off Netflix (I see you, I see you), and get to work. We’re not gonna let each other down.

I’m gonna go force myself to work, and for you to as well. So before you do, I want you to go hug someone. I don’t care if they/you don’t need it right now, cause they might need it later. Go out of your way to make others feel good- go out of your way to make you feel good.

Happy writing,

Emma-Kate xoxo