We have interviewed 36 people who have overcome struggles as a result of reinventing themselves. These stories show that zooming out and reinventing the way you lead your life is one of the most powerful ways to overcome struggles of mental health.
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I’ve interviewed 36 people who have been helped by reinventing themselves, and here are the top 5 struggles that these people have overcome:
In our many years of publishing helpful mental health content, we always received questions from our readers about specific situations. While we have a lot of helpful tips to share on how to be happier, we simply can’t offer advice for every situation.
That’s why I’ve set out to interview folks with every type of mental health struggle. My job as an interviewer is to categorize these interviews and present them in a way that is most helpful to our readers.
“I never understood why I couldn’t just be happy. I would beat myself up over it, wondering why I couldn’t be content with my beautiful home and fulfilling life. But my PTSD and trauma had a profound impact on my happiness and the happiness of my family.”
Struggled with:
Childhood
Loneliness
PTSD
Stress
“What if it could prevent someone else’s journey from taking the destructive twists and turns mine had? What if it could help caregivers and medical providers anticipate the road ahead and help the survivor navigate? What if MY journey could have been a little smoother because I had read or heard about someone else’s journey? Before I knew it, I was on a path to publishing.”
“Every ache or feeling I had in my abdomen required a call or trip to my doctor’s office to get assurance that everything was okay. One morning on my way to work I slipped on the ice in my driveway….I wasn’t hurt, but I couldn’t stop obsessing over it until I knew that the baby wasn’t either.”
Helped by:
Medication
Reinventing yourself
Therapy
“Just because I’m mourning, doesn’t mean that I’m not happy in life. Being happy to me means accepting all of the emotions as they come without judgment. I still experience anxiety and depression but I no longer beat myself up about feeling those things.”
Struggled with:
Anxiety
Borderline Personality Disorder
Depression
Grief
“Leaving my home country and studying abroad presented its own set of challenges. I experienced months of intense loneliness, barely leaving my student hall. I slept during the day, avoiding people for weeks. I felt emotionally numb, happy for others’ successes but powerless in my own life.”
Struggled with:
Childhood
Depression
Grief
Loneliness
Helped by:
Reinventing yourself
Self-improvement
“I was ready to do anything and everything to get sober. For the first time in a long time, I was honest. I got honest with myself and everyone close to me. I was going to do whatever it took to successfully detox from the drugs and live a sober life. I dropped my ego and asked for help.”
Struggled with:
Addiction
Anxiety
Depression
Helped by:
Rehab
Reinventing yourself
Treatment
“We all struggle, it’s part of being human. Once we can accept the normality of struggle, we can stop self-criticism which just makes things worse. Struggle is just a sign that we need to learn and practice new skills, our beliefs usually change in the process. “
“I have tried to reframe what depression is and rather than see it as a sickness, I see it as a state of my being. So instead of trying to fight it back, and remove it completely, which I have so far failed to do, I’ve tried to work with it as part of how I am. I find I suffer less as a result.”
Struggled with:
Depression
Helped by:
Reinventing yourself
Therapy
“One thing I did was to force myself to get back into the water, something I loved instead of staying in the house crying. Getting back to surfing began my journey to a new “me”. The ocean has a way of washing away whatever feels wrong. This was my best therapy. I strongly advise others to find something they love to do and rekindle their spirit to make good things happen.”
Struggled with:
Depression
Grief
Stress
Helped by:
Reinventing yourself
“I did not have an internal sense of self. It didn’t matter how much I accomplished or how many people I helped. I only measured positive outcomes by how others perceived and recognized me or my actions. The sooner we let go of labels, expectations, or the pain of past experiences, the sooner we will feel joy in our hearts.”
Struggled with:
Anxiety
Cancer
Childhood
Depression
Identity crisis
