#MORETHANENOUGH
By Jessica Pippin, LCPC
The National Alliance on Mental Illness has declared May Mental Health Awareness Month. This year, they have created a hashtag, #morethanenough, to promote that everyone has value regardless of our diagnoses. The sentiment encourages recognizing our successes and not comparing them to others, even if that means that you got out of bed today. What is it about the feeling of being “enough” that was so significant that it earned itself a dedicated hashtag and month of awareness?
ENOUGH: as much or as many required.
If you scroll social media for inspirational quotes, you will find plenty outlining the theme of being enough. Sometimes it’s in reference to being enough for others. Perhaps you are in an unhealthy relationship that has caused feelings of inadequacy. Sometimes it’s in reference to our own perspective of ourselves and validating our own value and worth. Perhaps you are feeling that you only hold value if you reach a certain level of productivity. These social media posts often help people feel as though they have been validated when they connect with others experiencing similar thoughts. NAMI created the hashtag #morethanenough for us to come together and support one another on this journey of finding our value.
VALUE: the regard that something is held to deserve; the importance, worth, or usefulness of something.
In order to increase the feeling of having a “value”, it can be important to address the source of what has created these thoughts and feelings for us. Often, this is related to past relationships or experiences where we were criticized, weren’t accepted, or failed. These experiences can be direct, like bullying, neglect, or abuse or they can be passive such as high expectations or frequent failures. Often, the concept of value is presented in childhood and can become distorted based on our experiences and interactions with others.
At times, finding our value requires us to change our relationships and set healthy boundaries in order to grow. If we have someone in our lives who is actively adding to these feelings, we need to evaluate if there is a need to remove them completely, work with them to improve the relationship, or implement healthy boundaries. Maybe Couples Counseling or Family Counseling can help to mend the relationships and rebuild them with healthier dynamics. It may be that individual therapy is needed to help you to recognize where these changes need to occur and how to make them. Regardless of where your relationships need work, increasing positive interactions and communication can greatly increase our feelings of value.
Other times, we have to do our own internal work in order to improve our relationship with ourselves. If your inner dialogue is full of negative self-talk, it will make finding your value near impossible. Identifying what that self-talk sounds like and how to address it can be a great start. At times, it is needed to do some deep therapy work to untangle the web of negativity and self-doubt that exists inside ourselves. Working to label our emotions, notice how our body is responding, and addressing our communication and coping skills can all help to increase our self-worth, which in turn creates a feeling of value.
Increasing our feelings of being valued or having value can increase the concept of being or having “enough”. What kind of things do you think you need to do to make the words #morethanenough something that you can bring into your future? Let us help you by connecting you with a therapist that matches your needs and has the skill set to meet you where you are and help you to achieve your goals.
Feel free to review our providers here:
https://www.thementalwellnesscenter.com/providers.
To schedule an appointment, you can call us at 309-807-5077 or email us at Info@TheMentalWellnessCenter.com