My Story: Taking Care of My Mental Health by Addressing Issues

By Saniya Ghanoui —

SD discusses ways she takes care of her mental health that do not involve physical activity.

Transcript:

OBOS Today: How do you take care of your mental health in other ways, besides activity—physical activity? 

SD: Well, I talk to my husband, I talk to my friends, I try not to keep anything festering for too long, you know. I try and address the issues and not push them down right. 

Exercising is just a way to deal with the physical effects of anxiety, but how you deal with issues is to address them. To talk about them with whomever they concern and just process it with friends or family whoever you have that’s close to you, so it doesn’t build up.  

And I am a “do work” kind of person, so if I’m concerned about something it makes me feel better, if I can do something about it. 

OBOS Today: Do you feel like your mental health has shifted at all in recent years in terms of your process with aging? 

SD: Hmm. It’s not aging per se, it’s the time of life, it’s the life space that you’re in. Whereas, you know when I was younger when I had kids at home, I mean I was worried about all that kind of stuff it was just like the active—you know, all that stuff.  

Now my concerns are broad, you know, and worry is too strong a word. I can’t even think of a lesser word. I think about okay, you know, the people in my life, my grown children, “I hope you’re happy,” you know, doing what they want to do. 

You know, the other young people family members in my life, I hope they’re happy too. It’s that kind of thing. So, I’m less concerned about, “Oh so and so has to go in a class trip, but then I have to take off from work and I have to get this,” you know, like all those worries, for a long time. I do think about bigger things, and I think about someday after I retire what will I do? You know, all that so just the minute—gone out the window. Who cares you know?