strive for change

To start this first blog, I’d like to give some insight into why I decided to do this. Not many people outside of my close friends know this but I have been sick and struggling since I was seven years old, but these past three years have been getting noticeably worse. I have been to dozens of doctors since all of my health problems started in second grade, but I have always been left with dead ends and no solid answers. I will get into more of my past in a separate post, but I would like to start this with a quick disclaimer. I did not create this blog to complain nor to gain sympathy from others, but rather to share what I have learned these last few years and hopefully help educate people who are struggling, whether they know they need it or not.

So, to get into this blog, I would like to address the concept of getting better. Seems like an easy thing right? To allow yourself to get better? Most people think this, which is why most people need to realize that it's not. By telling yourself that it is an easy thing to do you have just blinded yourself from the truth. With this, many people struggle with both mental and physical health, but they are either not aware of it or not willing to fix it. From what I have learned from the fifteen years I have been living in this world is that there are two types of people when it comes to problems.

The first kind, I will call the avoider. An avoider is the type of person that chooses to ignore any problem they may be having in their life, in hopes that it will just go away. Well, sorry to be the one to break it to you, but it almost never works like that. Think about it like procrastination, which, as a person with ADHD, I know a lot about. When you are procrastinating, perhaps on school work, a project for work, or even getting out of bed in the morning, the only thing it does is make the situation worse. This is what happens to the avoiders. They ignore problems until they get so bad that they can no longer handle them.

On the other hand, let me tell you about the other type of people, the blamers. As you may have guessed, these are the type of people that, by no means, will take responsibility for any problem they have, rather they pin the blame on someone else. They may try to use their mental or physical illnesses to their advantage such as begging for sympathy from others.

Now, you may ask, why am I telling you all of this? Well, whether we want to admit it or not, we all have been both of these types of people at one point in our lives, including me. It's what you do about it now that you know that really matters. I feel one of the biggest problems we have as human beings is being willing to help ourselves. We have to be willing to put in effort and make changes to get better. Believe it or not not, many people are not willing to do this, and would rather do nothing and get worse than do something and get better.

I must tell you that the change to help yourself is extremely hard at first, which is why I am here to show you that it is possible. The first step to getting better is to admit that you have a problem. You must be fully aware that it is your own problem and you have to be the one to fix it. Most people, when realizing they are mentally or physically unhealthy, just want to get a diagnosis and a medication that will immediately fix it and make things all better, just like that. We as people are full of just wanting the easy way out or no way out at all. Trust me, everyday I wish there was just a simple fix to whatever is and has been going on with my body for over half of my life, but I know that's not going to be the case. In order to get completely better, you must be willing to put in every ounce of effort you have. It takes work to get better.

Now, reading this you may be a bit overwhelmed and thinking that you will never be able to change so much of your life for this, but that's where you are wrong. To get better, you must start small. Make little goals for everyday, and focus on winning the day, rather than winning the year, and everything will seem much more possible. 14:24. 14 minutes and 24 seconds is one percent of each day. It only takes doing something to help yourself for 14 minutes and 24 seconds of everyday to win that day. Seems pretty possible now, huh?

But, let me warn you, not everyday will be as easy as you wish. There have been many days where I have just wanted to drop everything and give up. Oh, the amount of time I spent laying on my couch crying to my parents after missing yet another day of school, a cross country race, or plans with friends, telling them how I just wanted to give up and not keep trying to get better just to fail again. But, I have not let that stop me. I am still here doing everything in my power to help myself and figure out what is really wrong with me. I have not allowed myself to give up because I have faith that one day I will get better, and I will be so thankful looking back that fifteen year old me never decided to give up.

So, to wrap up this first blog, I’d like you to decide if you are willing to help yourself. Are you going to decide to give yourself a chance to live the great life you were put on this earth to fulfill, or will you get trapped in the worldly patterns. The hardest part of anything you do in life is the beginning. It's the start that stops you. Deciding you want to get better is the first step to getting better. I hope by now you have decided to give yourself a chance at fully fulfilling your life, and giving getting better a shot. I will do my best with this blog to share my story and how far I have come since I started, as well as give you tips and guide you through this healing journey.