When Emily was in high school, she was active in the swimming team, she was hanging out with friends on a regular basis, and she had her family with her no matter what. When she moved to college, she had to start over.
Her roommates started to notice that Emily wasn’t eating like she was supposed to, she wasn’t leaving her room, and she noticed she wasn’t happy.
“I definitely thought that I’d gone insane for a minute,” She said. She went to the doctor and they gave her a test. “After the visit with the doctor who’s like, ‘oh, you know, it’s okay. Everyone struggles with this at one point or another, not to the extent that others do but just you’re never alone in what you’re experiencing.’
After she visited the doctor, she felt a lot better about what she was going through. Her doctor explained to her some of the things she may feel or go through. Her family, while they didn’t know what to do, they tried their best to help her. All of her roommates had depression and knew when to push and when to hold back.
“Their ability to react in the appropriate way when I tell them something. If I tell them that I’ve messed up on something, they won’t freak out at me or they make it a bigger deal than it is.”
She continued, “But they also don’t not react. I’ve had people who just don’t react at all when I tell them things and that kind of makes me feel invalid. They react just the right way that both comforts me and makes me feel like the issues that I have are valid.”
Not only that, but her fiancee knows exactly how to help her.
When she goes through her anxiety attacks, she starts to shake. “It’s like my mind is trying to focus on too many things at the same time, so it focuses on nothing instead making me panic even more.”
All he does in response is hold her. He knows that when he holds her she starts to feel safe and she starts to get calm. It is because of him that she is able to be okay.
The compassion and love that everyone in her life has, has made it possible for her to be able to get better mentally. They took the time to understand what she was going through and to give her enough push to help her get to where she is now.
When it comes to compassion, it can be hard to fully know what a person is going through. If we can take the time to understand even a little bit, it will help them achieve far more than we can imagine.
For both those who struggle mentally and for those who are going through something else, a little compassion goes a long way.
