Acceptance and Your Mental Health

Acceptance is an important step in your mental health journey. But it is important for us to take a moment to explain what we mean by acceptance.

First of all, accepting your mental health as it exists today simply means sitting with those thoughts, feelings, and emotions without judgment or stigma. It does not mean that you are stuck with those thoughts, feelings, and emotions forever. It does not mean you cannot take steps to improve your mental well-being.

Stigma is such an albatross around the necks of those struggling with mental health conditions. Too often our peers, colleagues, or society at large tells us we should be able to handle things better, that you should be stronger, etc. This is particularly true in the legal profession where too often stigma tells us we aren’t as good as the legal professionals around us.

Acceptance is the push back against stigma and against those negative self-judgments. It is understanding that there is no wrong thought. No wrong feeling. And no wrong emotion. What you feel is genuine, authentic, and it is your body communicating with you.

This is important because it allows you to undertake your recovery journey at your pace. It means you don’t have to feel like you need to change everything about your life to fix your mental health. All too often, we try to change everything despite the fact small changes made consistently can be more important to our overall recovery trajectory. It means you don’t have to feel guilty about needing certain tools like therapy or medication if that is what works for you.

Put another way, acceptance means that no one gets to define how you feel and no one gets to define how you undertake your recovery journey if that is something you want and are ready for. And there are tools to help you with such as Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT). Of course, you can also reach out to us for support through our peer programs because we’ve been there too. Whatever path you take, accept it, make it your own, and know there will be support in your recovery journey.