Befriending the Parts and Mental Illnesses

These past two weeks have been something else entirely for me... I have been struggling with my mental health again and, with the help of a psychiatrist, have begun the journey of trying to get off of some medications that might be hurting me more than helping me. I've had some frightening symptoms pertaining to depression recently, but by the grace of God, I was able to get seen today and get a little bit of help... My Muslim part is still present at this moment in time, and right now she is feeling conflicted about everything. On one hand, she wants to follow God in a religious way and convince all my other religious parts to follow her lead, but on the other hand, she's starting to realize now that she can't simply push all the other parts away without regards to what they think, feel, and believe. Whether any of us like it or not, we're all going to have to work together to meet the common goal of becoming "Functionally Multiple".

I just did some homework for school right now, and the topic was on working with individuals and groups of different backgrounds (LGBTQ+, Culturally diverse, etc.), and something that I realized in my required reading was that the advice that kept being given was that a social work practitioner needs to be open to listening to what their clients need them to know, while also not forcing information out of them. It's a delicate balancing act, but absolutely something worth trying. Earlier today, as well, I was browsing the bookstore shelves and a thought came to mind for me about my parts. I thought about the kind of book I wanted to find on the bookshelves and realized that the book I wanted to find actually resides within me and is waiting to be written. The book I wish to write is a series of diary entries in which I approach different parts of myself, whether in a good place or in crisis, who need to be heard by someone and need to be loved and befriended or taken care of. I just want a story where the depressed girl befriends her depression monster and makes peace with it rather than trying to slay it like a hateful beast. The depression can't help that it is there, and I don't want to hurt it for something that it can't help. Besides, I feel like personifying my depression and other states/parts/illnesses is what I need to do in order to help them all work together and heal together, even if they don't always get along.

Thank you for listening to me once again.