Before I came to college, I was mentally healthy and really didn't struggle much with depression or anxiety, but since coming to college, that completely changed.

I started to feel lonely and uncomfortable in my surroundings, which was extremely challenging because I was away from everything that I was used to. I realized that a big portion of the anxiety I had was coming from being in a new place and having to be open and meet new people. I also noticed that anxiety and depression were affecting my schoolwork very negatively and I would sleep all day instead of enjoying life as I had done previously.

After my freshman year when I had moved into my own apartment, I noticed my depression getting worse, and I started getting really angry at the people who cared about me which ultimately hurt them, and hurt my relationships with these people who were trying to help me. This is when I realized that therapy was something I needed and I decided to start going to try to get back to my happy, normal self. At first, I was honestly very scared to go to therapy and open up to someone completely about my life and all my feelings, but I decided to and it helped me a lot to talk about why I felt the ways that I had been feeling, and where everything that I was feeling was coming from.

Therapy honestly helped me so much and I feel that everyone who either thinks about going to therapy or has dealt with mental health issues should go.

Therapy is not something to be ashamed of, and in college especially, it is nice to have someone to talk to that will just listen to you about everything that is going on with your life and help you work through it all. Mental health is important and it is important to know that you are not alone in dealing with these issues. Even though I still struggle with depression and anxiety, therapy helped me find ways to deal with these issues on a day-to-day basis; before I was just ignoring what was going on or trying to combat what was going on with things that were just ultimately making everything worse. I have also noticed that since I started coming to terms and not just ignoring my depression my everyday life has gotten easier and I am starting to get happier.

I feel that everyone should know that it does get better and you will get happier, it is just a day to day process that you have to work through.