Silje Therese

I'm glad being an ARMY have helped her too. And yes, being a part of a community, sharing your love for your interest with others, it's an amazing thing. When you feel like you're alone in your life, you remember that you have a second family; ARMY (in my case). I wish both you and your friend happiness, take good care of yourselves and of each other. :)

Thank you for sharing your experience on the matter. You're right, everyone is different. But I still stand for that crying is healing for everybody. Maybe your experiences with it just haven't been very rewarding. But I'm not gonna pretend that I know you, you know yourself best.

For people who suffer from a mental illness it's comforting to know that one isn't alone in feeling the way they are feeling. Relating to that through your interests, through dramas, is a good way to do that if you don't know anyone personally that is a sufferer. I think that's why it's beneficial to watch even the more heavier shows. Exactly, life is kinda sh*t sometimes. Isn't it good to feel sh*tty together then? lol idk, maybe this isn't making sense. But you have to be ready for it. If you don't feel ready to watch a heavy drama or movie, then don't do it, it's ok to take it slow.

Watching sad and heavy stories absolutely breaks my heart, but it's comforting at the same time. It's indeed a really weird experience. It somehow make you feel more okay, at least it was like that for me. It's a really hard feeling to explain, one can only really understand by feeling it for themselves.

And since you are mentioning this in your comment, I'd like to politely say that I disagree; death penalty should never be allowed. I only like watching murder if it's fiction.

Oh, that's cool. It's a nice place to grow up in. :)

To Each His Own have a very special place in my heart as well. I really like all of the dramas in my article and recommend all of them. Definitely give Chinese dramas and movies a try, they have their own charm as well. :)

Thank you for commenting. :) I'll definitely check out White Christmas, thank you for the recommendation. I wish you happiness with your own healing journey, remember to take good care of yourself.

Unhappy endings... in a sense, watching dramas makes one prepared for life better. Some things have unhappy endings, that's life, sadly. But it's realistic and you remember the whole story, how it lead to this situation, and all the happy and sad moments in-between. Maybe the most important and most valuable thing you get from dramas like these is that even if there is an unhappy ending, that doesn't mean that the whole experience/the whole drama was unhappy or sad. If you remember a story by its ending, then you miss how beautiful the whole story was.

Being part of a fandom makes one feel included. You're a part of a community and share the love you feel towards your interest together. I've found friends and talked with a lot of nice people by being an ARMY. It's really great. ^^

Thank you so much! It's important to normalise discussing mental health issues more openly. Your mental health issues are not a personality trait, it's important to realise this. I wish you happiness on your own healing journey, take good care of yourself. <3

Thank you, and I am ^^

I agree, both about dramas and about kpop. When I felt like I had nobody, BTS made me feel less alone. They were my lifeline. All idols are so humble and don't even realise how much good they are doing for their fans. I really hope they know how much their fans love them and appreciate everything they do.

Yes, I agree. The way it was made and the visuals for Skate Our Souls was pretty spot on on how you can feel when you're experiencing depression (or other mental health issues). Definitely not something you see very often.

Ahh, your comment made cry, lol. I guess because you remind me of myself a bit. Maybe I romanticised my article a bit too much, or no, I didn't want to make it just about me, that's why. Most days I was not well at all. It felt like a never ending cycle of hell. Of course during those days I found myself using dramas as a way to escape reality. Even though everything was painful in real life I still found myself laughing at the screen.

About not avoiding topics that hit too close to home for me; I guess I just had this passionate dissatisfaction with how my life was that I wanted to find reasons as to why it was so bad. Oh god, I absolutely hated school. It was the core of my mental health issues. Everything worsens when I'm there and all the things I'm still dealing with are all an aftermath of my school life. I wanted reassurance that my claims and feelings were right, that I wasn't being dramatic or delusional. I felt comfort in it. And the really dark ones about suicide... seeing happy endings made me feel really happy and encouraged.

But I did avoid thinking about things. I didn't want to listen to my thoughts so I always kept myself occupied. It was really hard to stop that avoidance behaviour. I found that I actually have a much stronger mentality than what I'd thought. Now my mind is my greatest gift. I sound so dramatic, but it's true. I have come to love thinking, exploring my mind. It took many years and it's still not always easy but it's so so much better. I still have issues with minor OCD and hypochondriasis. A lot of those thoughts are a bit annoying still. But the rest is pretty great. I'm actually smart, wow, lol.

Thank you so much for your comment. It made me reflect a bit more. I wish you all the best with continuing on your healing journey. (I'm about to cry again omg) Really thank you a lot. <3

Thank you, I'm glad you liked it! This is another attempt to normalise talking about mental health issues more. If it can help even one person, I'm satisfied. ^^ I hope to encourage others to open up about their difficulties. Please feel free to message me any time, I'm happy to talk about anything, mental health related or otherwise. :)

I'm glad you liked it! I really wanted to emphasise the importance of having something that you like to do/having an interest in the sense of metal health, and overall. Thank you, I hope things will get easier for you soon. Take good care of yourself.

Thank you so much! <3

Thank you so much! Better Days is a really good movie, it was very raw. Being surrounded by the things I love lift my spirit a lot. ^^

Yes, you're right. I think many are afraid of getting a negative response when opening up. I was really scared of that too. Building up the courage to talk about your feelings is really brave, one should really be proud of themselves.

Yes! Message me sometime if you want, we could become friends. :)

Thank you for your comment. I wrote the article with the intention to stirr up feelings in my fellow drama lovers hearts. Feeling depressed, it can make one quite numb to feelings. Dramas are a good way to relieve that numbness, at least for me. If nothing else, the drama is relatable and makes you cry, which can bring a sort of relief too.

It's really scary to feel down, terrifying at times. It's hard to climb back to the light, especially on your own. Having people you can talk to and who you trust will help a lot. But I know that a lot of people don't have that. But who said a support system only consists of people? That's where your interests come into play. Having at least one thing that you like to do will do so much for you! It won't fix your problem, but it will give you strength for another day. It can give you the strength to seek help.

I will definitely check out the dramas. I wish you all the best, take care of yourself.

It is hard. I remember when I found out that depression was even a thing. I read about it online and was like "Oh no, that's me". I was always a bit... weird (lol maybe), but I just felt even more different from the people around me back then. My parents found out just by living with me, but I didn't tell my friends about it for years.

It's hard to open up. It's painful. But I just felt so horrible that I didn't care anymore and just posted a text on social media about how I felt, so now everyone knows (even more people know now, from the article). It was really refreshing. Maybe my method isn't ideal for everybody, but it was what I felt most comfortable doing. Now I live my life feeling unapologetic for who I am, for being myself. I still don't care, but in a good way, if that makes sense.

I'm sure a lot of people think that they can get better on their own, so did I. "Therapy? No, I don't wanna talk with a stranger about my problems." Just try it one time. If nothing else, they give really valuable information and life lessons that you can think over and improve by.

I know a lot of people are scared that they will be met with a negative reaction when they open up about their feelings. I was so hesitant to talk about it because of this. Honestly, you could be met with a negative reaction, I don't want to lie. But you could also be met with a positive reaction. If you are scared of this then talking to a therapist is ideal, since they won't judge you.

(Sorry, I wrote another article under your comment lol) Thank you for your comment and for adding more dramas to the list! I wish you all the best in your own healing process. :)

Thank you so much! I think so too, we should talk about it more. In school there was never a subject (let alone a class) discussing mental health issues and what to do about them. If anything should be mandatory it's definitely that in my opinion. We should include it more, I think it would benefit a lot of people. People of any age experience mental health issues. We should make it normal to discuss these topics in any situation, at any place, in every country. Thank you for your kind words. I wish the best for you too!