My Mental Health is Very Important to Me

I was molested and abused quite severely as a child, and as a result, I've been obsessed with psychology and self-help books, self-healing, energy therapy, as well as traditional therapy. Traditional therapy was what I first sought out, but at the time I was first looking for it I was in college and had $13 in my checking account during a very trying and pivotal time in my life. It was January 1995. I found, in the classified section of the newspaper, an ad asking for victims of abuse to come and take part in a study. It sounded like free therapy, and it felt like it was. It was a start. The study was conducted by a grad student at BYU who was looking at how self-help books can have an impact on abuse survivors. Since therapy was out of the question, this was my only chance, in my mind, to seek the healing I so desperately needed and wanted. Miraculously, the book I read was authored by none other than Carol Tuttle. The book was Path to Wholeness, and it changed my life

Eventually, I found money for therapy. It consumed my entire budget. I was only able to invest in that for about a year. After that, I found free therapy through my employer. It was short-term, and after 1 year, I again was not able to continue. They referred me to some long-term (again, expensive - and not covered by insurance) psycho-therapists. I didn't contact any of them. Instead, for the next 6-8 years, I was just barely getting by, mentally. I recognized my need to seek out help, but I didn't. My reasoning: if a person is overwhelmed by a financial situation, then that in and of itself can cause trauma and distress.

What happened next was amazing. I found Energy Therapy. I found it through a very popular energy therapist, whose book it was that I first read that put me on my path to wholeness. Because, back in college, that first time I started looking for therapy, I didn't find a therapist, but I did take part in a study through a local private college. They were specifically looking for trauma victims -- those who had experienced sexual abuse, which I had. It was a door that opened for me...the Self-Help industry. And what a help it was.

So -- 

To cut my story off here and tell what opinion these experiences have led me to, I wish to say that I believe healing should be free. Or, cheap/affordable. I don't believe it's good to price mental health so far out of reach that no one except the very wealthy can afford it. I, therefore, want to share my resources and things that I've found that are very affordable and some that can be found on YouTube and in other areas for FREE. 

What I won't do is give too much of my story as to how I found them out. What I will say is that the character on Friends, Pheobe, used everything I've found to be what I need to keep and sustain good mental health. Let's recall how happy and upbeat she was throughout that entire show, BUT how messed up her life was. Her mom had killed herself. Her sister was a narcissist who kept her birth certificate and sold it on the street. She was homeless for a while. She's just a character, but as I've been getting more and more healthy psychologically, I've noticed that I have included some of her practices into my mental health regimen.

Here are some things that I use. 

Affirmations: 

Louise Hay

If you do a YouTube search you will find her work. Here are a few I use daily.

Best Morning Meditation - I use this every morning

Learn to Love Yourself

Monthly Massages

So this one is a little more pricey but compared to therapy, not that bad. You can find a good massage therapist, chiropractic clinic with massage therapy for around $60 per session. This actually has had a huge impact on my mental health. The body and the mind are definitely connected. This led me to...

Aromatherapy

Are you picturing Pheobe, the massage therapist? And one of her earliest stories about her life was a comment she made to Ross in the pilot about remembering back to when her mother killed herself and then found aromatherapy. Essential Oils are amazing. There are many brands out there and, I've found, that it's easy to spend a lot of money on them. However, I've found a brand that is reputable and affordable. Eden's Garden has sample kits on Amazon that are extremely affordable. These are my go-to oils for everyday use.

Chakra Knowledge

I am not here to testify of this as a religion, but as a frame of thinking of our mental health having a connection to our spirit, or body, and our entire being. Being molested didn't just affect my mental health, but it affected every area of my life. Consequently, the process of healing, in order to be complete has required me to look at myself as having a spiritual anatomy, and the "mental" is just one part of that whole being that needs healing. There are countless books and programs for studying this. My first experience was via Carol Tuttle, but I have found that there are many many authors who have written about this. My advice is to explore. YouTube is my go-to for getting free content for things like this. I've even made a playlist to support each Chakra.

Self-Help Books

This was my first ever experience with taking charge of my own healing. The first book I ever read was Carol Tuttle's, Path to Wholeness, which is out of print now. But, you can find almost anything if you do an internet search. Since then read others: Reinventing Your Life by Janet S. Klosko and Jeffery Young, Healing the Shame that Binds You by John Bradshaw (which he had a PBS show about and is available online here), The Emotion Code by Bradley Nelson (he also has a lot of videos on YouTube), and so many more. 

I, again, feel that mental health medicine should not be as expensive as it is, and these are a few ways I've been able to heal. I've found ultimate healing through my faith in the Grace of Christ and have been especially inspired by talks such as the one given by Brad Wilcox called His Grace Is Sufficient. I hope you find these resources helpful. There are many more that I've been using that I can't think of right now. If I remember them I'll post more. I think we need a source to help us change our thinking mind from a negative pool of self-hatred to a positive receptacle for inspiring positive thoughts and a renewing source of God's love for us to help us rise to a higher level of living. Our thoughts can be changed. We can change. I see this as a form of repentance, but like Louise Hay says, we don't have to be bad people trying to be better people...we can be amazing people trying to become more of who we truly are. This is my goal for myself, and for all who feel like depression, anxiety, and self-loathing are the norm.