Life coach, mentor, and inspirational and motivational speaker Gloria Akech says the first step toward one’s mental care is accepting the problem and the ability to own up to their actions to find solutions.
Akech, a former victim of depression, said that after her struggle with the disorder realized that blaming others for a personal situation does not change or help but sinks a person deeper.
“We should move past whoever brought a situation to asking how we deal with it because that is the only way we can move forward. Personally, I had a lot of anger, I literally blamed everybody. I kept asking myself why they did not ask me, why nobody cared about me until I started asking myself why didn’t I?” she said.
She explained that people normalized the blame game to avoid self-accountability because if they put it on themselves, they know they will be thrones to put in the work to better themselves.
“When you take responsibility for your actions, you realize that you did mistakes. Some you could have avoided and accepted that it was your doing. Do not claim people have not helped us. Are you teachable/ helpable or approachable? If someone tells you your mistake, will you openly receive the feedback?” Gloria asked.
According to her observations, the ‘self-love’ phenomenon is slowly losing meaning because people are using it to justify their bad behavior, becoming very selfish.
“To me, self-love is not allowing anybody/ anything to affect my mental health. It does not mean it will not happen but when somebody makes me feel uncomfortable, love yourself enough to walk away,” she advised.
“Today, self-love is about making other people uncomfortable but self-love has to be about you and not others. I do not have to hurt another person to prove my love for them. I have learned is to walk away from people, conversations, situations, and social media to protect your mental health,” Gloria stressed.
Gloria Akech got on a self-discovery and mental wellness journey after being a victim of depression, drugs, and alcohol as a coping mechanism for the challenges she faced in her life.
She is now a counselor, mentor, life and mental wellness coach, and also the author of ‘Out of Woods’. She emerged as the most outstanding student in advanced counseling and crisis counseling in 2018 at the Makerere University of Health Sciences.
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