Everyone struggles: USU professor opens up about mental health struggles
Editor’s note: to protect her privacy, The Utah Statesman is identifying the professor by a pseudonym
After doctors diagnosed her post-traumatic stress disorder and fibromyalgia at 27-years-old, the pain was “unbearable because it’s a pain that no one can really grasp.”
“You have to deal with that on a daily basis and you have to go one with your life on a daily basis,” said Maria, a Utah State University professor who agreed to talk about her mental experiences under a pseudonym.
She has found treatments through medication and therapists.
“I’m under treatment to be able to go through life on a daily basis and even when I feel like I touch rock bottom, I know that thinking that there are better days ahead is really important,” the professor said.
Maria says she has found purpose in her suffering by doing what she loves.
“I have the luxury to do something I absolutely love doing,” Maria said. “Here I am in a place where they let me teach the classes I wish to create, where I have this population of students, that aren’t crazy middle schooler or high schoolers, who are motivated and I think that that is something that gives me purpose.”
She said she enjoys life when students are interested in learning more and ask lots of questions, students who touch her heart.
“You let me touch your heart and you touch my heart, it’s all reciprocal,” Maria said. “You guys are in one way or another carrying me and it keeps me wanting to stay alive. It’s just about staying alive at the end of the day. That’s something that my profession gives me.”
This professor is aware of the challenges that arise on a day to day basis.
“You have ups and downs,” she says. “You have to find a way to deal with that. It’s a lot of isolation, it’s a lot of acceptance. You’ve got to accept what’s going on and you’re going through all kinds of phases. It changes your identity, it changes who you are and so it’s changes everything from one day to another.”
But she encourages those with mental health to do what they love because that will, in her words, will “keep you hanging.” “I think that emotional issues, mental issues, whatever you want to call them are a huge stigma in this country and it needs to stop,” Maria said. “Because there are people out there who are really suffering who don’t want to talk about it because they don’t want to be judged. Let’s stop judging people. Let us stop judging people. Let us be more accepting.”
She says that mental health is no different from breaking a leg. A person with a broken leg will get the correct medication and therapy to heal. She says it’s the same way with mental health.
“Mental health and emotional health has to be taken seriously enough because there are people who actually take their lives,” Maria said. “It’s okay to have these kinds of problems. We can live with it. I think that we need, a little bit more than everyone else, feelings of love, and to not feel judged.”