Forum is a 28-year-old who works at the reputed firm of Tech Mahindra, as a Management Trainee. She is from Mumbai and finished her MBA from the reputed Institute of Symbiosis.
She likes fitness and has an oscillating interest. She has learned art for almost 8 years and she was raised in a protective environment. Forum completed her schooling in her hometown and then finished her Bachelor’s in Engineering and went about to pursue her MBA.
She explained that she has a good relationship with her family but also a few differences with her mom which has grown over time towards betterment.
She joined a Mental Health group in college and learned about the different aspects of Psychology which got her interested to understand the subject more. She received first-aid psychology training and has been connected with Mental health and its narratives ever since then.
Things were going smoothly until she started noticing behaviour changes.
Overthinking and anxiety were always an issue in childhood for Forum. As children, we do not usually realise its root cause but as an adult, this affected her mental health since it caused a lack of decision-making, low self-esteem and confidence, and the continuous train of thoughts caused a lack of focus and forgetfulness.
“As a young adult I always thought this to be a normal way to lead and everyone goes through it but later on when I saw people around not overthinking and getting anxious even if we were in similar situations example: my colleague was put in a project which was not of our choice my colleague was confident but I was anxious and self doubted myself.”
Forum was determined to shatter the unwanted thoughts and break away from the negativity that was turning her into someone she was hating. Her anxiety also gave birth.
“My anxiety was a parasite to my self-doubt, it was eating my confidence and making me weak.”
Forum reached out to YourDOST through her company’s association and was ready to speak transparently from day one. No stigmas around mental health counselling bothered her.
She was comfortable with investing time in her mental health as the platform provided chat and audio sessions at the convenience of her home.
She got connected with her counsellor, Ms Pranami Bordoloi, and found herself to be more relaxed after the first session.
“My counsellor was very warm and welcoming, she is a great listener and has always encouraged me to speak to my heart’s content. Maybe I connected with her quickly as we are of the same age group.”
She also explained that she felt that there was more to her anxiety and felt that this could be ADHD after doing a little research to get clarity on the same she approached YourDOST.
ADHD does not let you focus on a single thing. It feels like a never-ending train of thought and you tend to experience forgetfulness, and lack of focus on tasks which tends to make silly mistakes, and have difficulty in starting as well as completing tasks since a person with ADHD lacks dopamine which bores them easily. This is what was happening to her.
Forum expressed that when you have mental health such as ADHD, anxiety and overthinking this causes a lack of decision-making and belief in yourself thus success pace becomes slow because before taking each action you think a lot and go through a self-doubt zone.
Her counselor’s advice was for her to just focus on one task, practice mindfulness and avoid multi-tasking. She expressed that Ms Pranami asked her to reduce stimuli and keep her senses active. She was able to follow these and started seeing positive changes in her personal and professional life
She expressed that her counselor has helped her open up about her perspective. All her solutions were productive and helpful and she started seeing things slowly change in her life.
“I love to read books and almost journal every day this helped to improve myself and writing thoughts down makes my mind calm.”
Forum mentioned that these activities have helped her to improve her mental health.
“I thank my counselor from the bottom of my heart for listening to me with her undivided attention and facilitating my growth in terms of building my confidence and identity. She helped me acknowledge my achievements since as an overthinker I never realized that I was already achieving amazing things in life I also thought this was normal and every other being could do it but she made me realised that some achievements were great feats to achieve and its not everyone’s cup of tea.”
The journey has seen more downs than ups, but Forum is committed to improving herself one day at a time.
She rated herself progressing 3 out of 5 in terms of getting better for she sees herself as a ‘work in progress’ and has a long way to go. With her newly built confidence, she is ready to conquer the challenges that life will throw at her
“I was in freeze-mode when something uncertain happens and now I am in a solution-oriented approach now if life throws at me such situations. Just taking suggestions doesn’t help, proactively taking actions matter too and I was after mine.”
On a scale of 1 to 5 in terms of feeling better Forum rated herself with a 4 and we are vouching for her!
Forum’s Warrior Tips:
1.“People need to seek help even if they have a slight doubt about their mental health. Do not overthink but take it seriously and seek help.”
2.“Be patient and compassionate with yourself and stay consistent with your progress.”
