“There’s a potential inside of you that needs to be unleashed.”

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You know, it’s the damndest thing: depression’s voice makes you feel like you’re useless. Am I right? And as if that weren’t enough, anxiety overwhelms you, hijacks your mind and tells you things like, “No one likes you” or that “you can’t do something because, you know, anxiety.” And man, don’t even get me started on what PTSD does to a person

But why are these mental health conditions so impactful on how we view ourselves? Well, other than the obvious, they make you feel worthless and scared. I would argue that they do much more than that. Chief among them, at least as far as I’m concerned, is their power to fool us into thinking that low levels of serotonin are producing our authentic selves. Low levels of these brain chemicals have been linked to depression.

The neurochemistry of depression

Interestingly, these alterations in brain chemicals have a detrimental effect on what makes us, well, us. For example, many who have a bout of sudden-onset depression say they don’t feel like themselves. Well, it’s because they aren’t themselves, at least not to the degree they are when well.

If I could pick on depression just a bit more, I’d like to add that a small thing like looking at one’s phone can feel like one is trying to solve a Rubik’s Cube in the dark. That’s how tough it can be to negotiate around depression’s low.

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So, the interesting question is, “What is the impact of mental illness’s influence on us in our overall outlook on ourselves?” In other words, what is the aftermath of repetitive depressive episodes, anxiety attacks and traumatic stress reactions?

Shame, regret, fear, feeling like a failure? It’s as though the way we start to feel about ourselves is a side effect of the mental illness. If anxiety is fear response and depression is a low that it makes one feel like they’re crawling through molasses, then, yes, I can see it doing a number on confidence and self-esteem. Can you? Furthermore, if you no longer feel like you, then who are you? The disorder you have been diagnosed with? Nah, I don’t believe that.

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While it’s true that you may “feel” like you have been defeated, changed and otherwise robbed of your essence, that’s not true. In fact, I know “There’s a potential inside of you that needs to be unleashed.”

How do I know this? Simple, you first understand that you are under the influence of your own chemistry, or, in the case of PTSD, you are can often be at the mercy of a malformed amygdala; the regions of the brain that regulate or fight, flight or freeze response.

These abnormalities make you say things like, “no one likes me,” (anxiety) or makes you jump at every noise (PTSD). They are symptoms, they are not you; no matter how integrated into your personality they may seem, they are not. Hence, “There’s a potential inside of you that needs to be unleashed”

• is it really important?
• I’m happy you’re here
• What life can teach us
• I don’t need anyone.
• Can you do it?

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So, if your anxiety disorder keeps you from doing the things that make you, you; do them anyway. If PTSD, has you in its grip, get out of the house and commit to coffee with a friend…. You probably will be bothered by the noise, but the time with your friend can be make you whole, like you again, if only for a while.

“You are and always will be, worth way more than you think you are.”

Jonathan Arenburg.

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Published by Jonathan Arenburg

Jonathan Arenburg is a mental health blogger, Speaker, writer, and published author; He is also the host of the mental wellness podcast, #thewellnesstalks He has also appeared in the i'Mpossible's Lemonade Stand III. He has also been a contributing writer for Mental health talk, a column in his local paper. In addition, he has also written for the mental health advocacy organization; Sick Not Weak. Jonathan has also appeared on several mental health-related podcasts Including: A New Dawn, The Depression Files, Books and Authors, and Men Are Nuts. Since being put off work because of PTSD, Jonathan has dedicated his time to his mental wellness journey while helping others along the way. Educated as an addictions' counsellor, he has dedicated most of his professional life of eighteen years, working with those who have intellectual disabilities, behavioural challenges, and mental illness. He has also spent fifteen years in the volunteer fire service helping his community. His new book (2021), “The Road To Mental Wellness,” goes into detail about his life-long battle with depression, anxiety and more recently, PTSD. In it, he hopes to provide insight on how mental illness cultivates over a lifetime and, if not recognized and treated, how it impacts the entirety of one's life; right from childhood into the adult years. Jonathan lives with his two children in Nova Scotia, Canada. View all posts by Jonathan Arenburg