Tag: mental-health

5 Years in the Making

On By dandoon167Leave a comment

We all go through life challenges. And whoever said “Life isn’t fair” was right, sometimes. The challenges that we face can sometimes seem so overwhelming and so beyond us that we don’t know what to do or where to start digging out of our hole that we are in. I am here to tell you that you can come out, but it’s a lot easier if you have others helping you dig out.

Five years ago, I was overweight and struggling with mental health issues. I was “all over the place” some days, and other days I was living my best life. I didn’t like how everything was so back and forth and how I shifted to one side or the other depending on my mood and life circumstances. I wasn’t able to ride the wave. I wanted some change in my life, for the better, so I embarked on my weight loss journey.

Losing weight wasn’t the goal. Becoming a healthier and stronger version of myself was. It took time, patience, self-control, and consistency but I lost 100lbs all on my own merit. It was empowering. I look in the mirror and I see myself, fully. “This is Dana” I would say to myself. This is always what I wanted. Struggling with weight gain because of mental health was brutal. But I learned so much from my journey.

At the age of fifteen years old, I suddenly shifted into a sever manic episode. It lasted about two weeks until I got some professional help. However, the help weren’t rooting for me. They told my parents and I that I would never amount to anything and I probably would never even go to college, let alone graduate high school. My parents were devastated. I knew I had to do something to prove to myself I can do whatever my mind wanted to embark on.

I did graduate high school with a high GPA all considering how often I was struggling. High school was the toughest experience but I made it through. I went off to University and I graduated with a 3.49 GPA. I went off to get my MA in Clinical Psychology. I worked for five years as a therapist and attained my LCPC licensure recently. I also am in a PhD art therapy program, which has been life changing and exactly what I want to do moving forward. The psychiatrists were all wrong. I was right. I could do anything my mind was set to. But how did I get here?

This is what I did to get to where I am today. I made a healthy lifestyle change first and foremost. I take my treatment team seriously and meet with them when I need to. I have regimented morning and evening, little rituals that I do. In the morning I write in my mood journal and I have been journaling in my separate journal more often and it truly helps. I do yoga now and I lift weights at the gym with my awesome personal trainer. I deep breathe when I have to if I feel anxiety kick in. But most of all I lean on supports, which is my loving family. Without my wonderful parents I would not be here today. Without their support I would be forever lost. All thanks go to them.

I also took a good look at spirituality. I now follow my heart and I pray to God in my own ways. I pray in English, I pray in Arabic, or sometime silently before bed. I do good deeds and I always smile in public and I am friendly. I get approached often because of this energy that I exude. Life all started to come together this year. If you had told fifteen-year-old Dana that I would be where I am today: in a PhD art therapy program, working as a therapist with my LCPC, with a loving partner and amazing family who has my back with a healthy body I would have laughed at you and said “Impossible”. But it was possible because I sought the right help early and continued working through any trauma and all of my emotions. It took years, it took hard work, but it made me humble and more empathic. The empathy I have for others is very huge and large, it knows no ends. It has no boundaries. I feel for people that I know and for all those I don’t know who are suffering.

I was in that hole. I couldn’t dig from out of it alone. Thankfully, I had a team of people digging with me until they lifted me up and out of it and I could finally see the sunshine.

As Earnest Hemingway once said “You may encounter many defeats, but you must not be defeated.” Lean on your supports. Lean on what ever faith you have or spiritual practice. Talk to trusted friends and family and your partner. Life is out there waiting for you to make your mark. Come out of the dark, and into the light. Come and see the sunrise and start your day with your own ritual and end your night with a peaceful mind knowing you are doing the best you can at all times.

Peace & Love

Dana

Entering Through a Door

On By dandoon167Leave a comment

It’s 2025. First and foremost, a Happy New Year! Second, I haven’t written in far too long. I guess life has just been busy. Yes, it is an excuse, so please, excuse me for that! To start the New Year right, I am going to share all about loss and all about gaining. When things end, or when things don’t go your way, or you hit rock bottom, the world will feel so heavy on your shoulders. But, at some point, by some force, the weight will slowly come off and you’ll be strong enough again to tackle the challenges that you’ll be facing because let’s be real… we will always have challenges in life.

In my life, the past two years, I was in a relationship and I thought I was happy but subconsciously I was always stressed and feeling like there was something wrong. Due to this, I couldn’t sleep well, I couldn’t eat right, I was drowning in my own subconscious sorrow. It was a very hot and cold relationship. However, I just wanted it to desperately work so I did everything in my power to hold on to it and make him stay. After two years of ups and downs, of me stressing, of him having one foot in the door and one foot out, all of a sudden it was over. Absolutely crushed, destroyed… I didn’t know what to do. But I accepted the break up.

I was fine the first week. I even met someone new at the time. But then after a few weeks I fell apart like paper does when it gets shredded, I was in very small pieces. I wasn’t sure if I would come back together. Keep in mind, I had five classes, internship, and work to focus on while I was feeling like I was the biggest mess on earth. I had lost hope, I wanted to love deeply, I wanted him back. And after a few more weeks, the feelings settled and I started to accept this loss.

It truly was a loss. I was grieving. The next guy ended things because I was looking for my last relationship and we were weren’t compatible. Went on a handful of dates but nothing was for me. Then, I reached out to someone… and he reciprocated. We met, and the rest is history. When I first met him, I couldn’t help but get lost in his eyes. He blew me away by the way he is. We hugged good-bye and I knew then and there, here is someone I want to be with. And here I am, in the New Year, with a new relationship, with someone I am truly in love with.

One door closed, and seven opened right after. Even though I had lost all hope and I thought I’d never find someone for me, after waiting for a few months BAM he showed up in my life making me happier than I ever was. I have never loved like this before. When I entered through his door, everything came together. I had another purpose. I had some more meaning. I felt this feeling in my heart that was full of love.

When doors close, trust me, other previously locked doors will open. You just have to go through each one to find which door is the one that you need in your life. There is a trial and error but I think the universe conspires to help you choose the right door at some point if you are a good human being and you’ve been through some terrible times to get you on the path you’re meant to be on. Whether that be career, academics, family, friends, hobbies, or love and relationships. You WILL be happy. A door WILL OPEN for you. Trust in that. Don’t let go of hope. I thought my life was all over for love. I thought I wouldn’t love again or be loved. And here I am, with all that I’ve ever wanted and more.

Until next time, and don’t forget to open some doors this year. Find the one for you.