Moving Forward with Our Mental Health

What do you say when you feel like you have nothing to say? As the saying goes: “something is better than nothing.”

It’s no secret that lately, I’m not writing here as often as I used to (I’ve actually written about that specific feeling, funny enough). There are a million and one reasons as to why I haven’t been doing so. There is, of course, the *gestures vaguely everywhere* of it all. Living in the United States in 2025 is…well, I don’t actually know how to put it into words. At least, without going on a long rant. If I did, maybe I would have been able to write something here in the past few months! But I digress.

But it’s not just that (although truly, that would be enough). Every now and then, I feel like I’ve plateaued in doing this project. When I started My Brain’s Not Broken, I was in my early 20’s, and just figuring out myself and my mental health. I had more bad days than good, and I felt like the blog was a place to figure out those challenges in real time.

Look, I won’t pretend that everything is all sunshine and rainbows these days. But I am much more confident about how I handle my anxiety and depression, and am confident in the tools I’ve acquired to help me deal with those challenges. I’ve become stronger, more confident, and more prepared to talk about my own mental health, and talk about mental health with other people. I’ve written it countless times on this blog: we are stronger together, and I am so thankful that I can add my story and my experience to the millions of people who experience mental health challenges every single year.

So this is my re-entry to the space. I don’t quite know what I’m doing, and I don’t quite know what my goal is. Since I started this blog, the world’s changed a great deal, and the contributing factors to the mental health crisis in America (and around the world) are much different than they used to be. Smart phones, AI, politics, pandemics – it’s almost hard to even remember the type of person I was back when this blog was started.

But that’s part of why projects like this matter. Because beyond offering tips, tricks, and advice, this blog is a chronology of my life and the major happenings in it. It’s my journey with mental health; my ups and downs, the joys and struggles. It’s captured my unique perspective at specific points in time. There are posts I can turn to when I need a boost. Posts that I’ll look back on and say, I can’t believe I wrote that (hopefully in a good way!). And while I know that this blog has never played the role of an online diary or anything like that, it’s been fascinating to see the way I’ve grown and changed over the years, through what I’ve written.

Mental health – as a topic, a public health issue – as a community – isn’t the same as it was when this project first started. It’s morphed, it’s changed. There have been good aspects to this, and there have been bad ones. We’ve hit milestones and faced serious setbacks; in this moment, it feels like it’s more setbacks than successes. So I will continue to write, and share my perspective on mental health – the good, the bad, the ugly, and everything in between. Whether that makes a lick of difference in the vast abyss of the Internet, I do not know (most likely, no). But as long as I’m in this corner of the Internet, you can count on this being a space that prioritizes those things. Because mental health matters. I matter. And you matter. And these are important things that I never want us to forget.

10 thoughts on “Moving Forward with Our Mental Health

  1. Unknown's avatar Anonymous September 10, 2025 / 10:45 am

    Glad to see a post from you! I was wondering what happened. I’m also in a different place than when I started my blog. I don’t know which direction to go with it either.

    Liked by 1 person

    • Nathan Smith's avatar Nathan Smith September 18, 2025 / 1:06 pm

      It’s hard! Not sure about you, but I’m in a very different place than I was when I started the blog, so a lot has changed. Thanks for sharing.

      Liked by 1 person

  2. WiL (she/her)'s avatar WiL (she/her) September 18, 2025 / 10:02 am

    I can relate to this. I have struggled with writing on my mental health blog for several years now because I am in such a different place than I was when I started it 14 years ago. But I still want to write. The words just don’t come as easily as they did when I was less healthy.

    Liked by 2 people

    • Nathan Smith's avatar Nathan Smith September 18, 2025 / 1:07 pm

      You’re so right, the words don’t come as easily as they used to! But I do love writing, so I guess however it continues is a good thing. I wasn’t sure if anyone would really get it – running a blog for 14 years is certainly an accomplishment!

      Liked by 2 people

  3. WiL (she/her)'s avatar WiL (she/her) September 18, 2025 / 2:25 pm

    Writing was my way of dealing with all the difficult and really dark times, hence the name of my blog, Write into the Light. I feel like a certain psych med I started in 2014 took a lot of my creativity from me.

    Liked by 3 people

  4. Traci Edwards's avatar Traci Edwards September 24, 2025 / 8:07 pm

    I love that you decided to jump back into writing! Your reasoning is the exact reason I started to write.

    For me I was burying past trauma and I didn’t realize how much it was effecting my life years later.

    I had been stuck and I had no clue that being stuck was even “a thing.”

    My anxiety was through the roof, self-worth far out of reach and I lost my overall connection with myself.

    Writing became an outlet that brought me back to me.

    Now I love it and I can’t stop. It’s one reason as to why I started Let’s Get Unstuck Blog.

    We need voices like yours to continue! That’s how I found you.

    Liked by 1 person

    • Nathan Smith's avatar Nathan Smith October 10, 2025 / 9:50 am

      Thanks for your kind words! Writing is one of the most amazing outlets I think we have, and I’m really glad to be getting back into it again. Can’t wait to follow your blog!

      Like

  5. Things's avatar Things October 6, 2025 / 8:58 am

    What stands out is how honestly you describe the pauses in your journey. They show that progress in mental health is not a straight line but a series of returns to oneself. Even silence can be part of healing because it allows space for renewal and perspective.

    Liked by 1 person

    • Nathan Smith's avatar Nathan Smith October 10, 2025 / 9:55 am

      Thank you so much for saying this; I’ve never thought about my silence as being a positive thing or having positive aspects, but your insight has given me something to think about. And you are so right – progress is not a straight line, and it doesn’t need to be! Thanks for your comment.

      Like

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