I was the kind of person who tried to do everything. I wanted to be that person. I NEEDED to be that person in others' eyes. Until, one day, I realized I was killing myself in the process.

Feeling pressured — and we’re talking about social pressure — is a worldwide phenomenon. It’s when one person, or people, try to influence another person, or people. But there’s a key element of it…

If you're feeling lonely, there are a few things you should know. I've been there. I'm going to walk you through a time I felt extremely lonely and then show you what you can do about this tough feeling.

I'm going to write something risky. I argue that you need more conflict in your life than you currently have--not less. Well, you need the right kind of conflict. Here's why you shouldn't avoid it.

Difficult conversations can be terrifying. I used to dread them. And avoid them. But no longer. Because I learned what makes them so difficult in the first place.

I was interviewed on a mental health podcast a week ago, and I got into the nitty-gritty details of my mental health struggles. It got me to thinking. Why did I share such details with a person who was, moments ago, a stranger?

When I was dealing with depression, I had a period of about five months when I didn't sleep at all. It was awful. And it was made worse by something that I did. Now I know better and am sharing it with you.

As you're about to find find out, mental health requires balance. And that means you must even balance positive emotions, like happiness.

Why are they mean? And what are you supposed to do about it? Read on for a surprisingly simple approach.

When a person says, "I hate my life," you tend to think they know what they're talking about, right? Not exactly. There's more going on beneath the surface.

As a man who lived with depression, I know how hard it is to ask for help. This is especially true for men because society wants us to be big and strong and not share our feelings. This is what I've learned. This is how to help.

Mental health advice is bad, and I want you to know why. More importantly, I want you to know how to find helpful mental health guidance so that you can improve your life and how you feel.

I've always felt misunderstood. I've always felt like sort of an oddball. It's only been within the last four or five years that I've finally come to appreciate my sensitivity and my unique traits. These questions really helped.

I never thought mental health poetry would help me as much as it does. First, I'll explain it. Then, I'll show you how it can help you, too.

A tree has roots. That's obvious even though you can't see them. But did you know that you have roots, too? What I mean is that there are tendrils in your life that sprouted a long time ago, and they still have an impact on you.

Are you stressed out? Do you feel like you can't ever relax? I get it. I've struggled with it many times in my life. And it's through the struggle that I learned three simple steps that help relax my mind. They really work.

Whatever you want to call it--faking it, not being true to yourself, playing a role--you can tell when a person is not being honest with the world around them. It's time for some straight talk about authenticity and mental health.

There's a mental health mistake I used to make. And I still see a lot of people making it. In fact, it's not just related to mental health. People make this mistake in all areas of their life.

There are questions, and then there are big questions. And this one is one of the biggest. I get asked this question all the time on Twitter and in response to my mental health newsletter issues.

This is a real problem that can have a devastating impact on relationships. Read this if you feel that people aren't listening to you. There's more to the issue than you might think.

When a person has this one quality, it makes life much easier. And it's a quality that's totally unassuming. In fact, that's the entire point. Anyone who has this quality immediately becomes more likable and easier to deal with.

I went to grad school to become a social worker. Still, there's a medical way of looking at depression. And there's the everyday reality of what depression looks and feels like. Read this if you're asking, "Why am I so depressed?"

Lindsay designed the cover for my mental health poetry book, In Search of Happiness. Not only did she do a phenomenal job, she also has a powerful mental health story that I'm more than happy to share here.

Maintaining your mental health is hard work. It's your life's work. If you've ever thought, "This is all too much," I want you to read everything below. Every single word. It might just change how you see yourself.

Bad coping mechanisms feel good in the moment but wreak havoc on mental health in the long term. And they primarily come from being way too stressed out. Learn how to ditch bad habits and learn good stress coping mechanisms.

There's nothing more frustrating than when you're trying to communicate something and you can't get your point across. It's maddening. It feels minor, but it truly is a mental health issue, and let me tell you why.

Sometimes, I think there is something wrong with me. Because I like being alone. I crave alone time. Still, I thought that it was a bad thing for the longest time. I learned that it depends on the context.

To know how to stop wasting time, you first need to know a little bit about anxiety. Anxiety thrives in a world of uncertainty. It loves when you don't take action. Lack of action gives anxiety space to grow.

I'm going to take you on my negative self-talk journey today--and point out how I learned to improve my self-talk, and highlight the work that I'm still doing to conquer this destructive habit.

Thinking about output makes you step back and consider what you are producing in life. What are your key tasks, and what actually results from those tasks?

Dealing with life isn't easy. Especially when life doesn't go according to your plan. You need a way to cope. You need a way to address both the good and bad of life. Here's your way.

This doesn't just apply to celebrities. It explains why cancer is a "casserole illness" but mental health issues don't even usually conjure up a card or a public gesture of support.

When you think that things need to get better, you're thinking from a place of entitlement. But entitlement that's not backed up by action is delusion. I don't want you to go down the road I went down.

I find that life gets boring when life becomes a churning sea of sameness. Maybe you feel the same way. Part of living is expanding to fill the void. When you're in a sea of sameness, you tend to swim in place. Learn to create.

There is a type of behavior that some people do when they are feeling anxious or overwhelmed. It's associated with obsessive-compulsive behaviors, but I've found that it's common with all kinds of people. It's called "checking."

I do something that I'm sure you do, too. I minimize my feelings. I tell myself that I don't have a right to feel a certain way. It's not healthy. It's not good for me. But still, I do it.

I truly believe this is my best work so far. It's a collection of my best writing from years of poems and essays. It's something I wrote for you. It's something I wrote for anyone who is questioning if life is worth living.

That person is just faking it. Oh, she's just not trying hard enough. He's being too soft. This is stigma, plain and simple. It's time to do something about this.

The biggest actions aren't big because of their dominance and brute force. They're big because they're back by thousands of tiny actions.

Control is elusive--we can't ever have it. But we can have something else. There's another, more effective way to approach all kinds of relationships.

What if today you decided that you were just going to treat pain as pain? What if right now you decided, once and for all, that anything can be traumatic? What would that mean for you?

So what should you do when a relationship goes sour? What's the opposite of ignoring? It seems obvious, right? The opposite of ignoring would be confronting those who have harmed you, wouldn't it? Not exactly.

Not feeling appreciated. What can you do about this troublesome feeling? There's a step you can take, but it's not easy. Fortunately, if you follow it, you'll save yourself a lot of heartache and mental strife in the long run.

When I was suffering from depression years ago, I thought I had to pretend to be happy to get through it. I thought I had to let everyone know that I was OK, that nothing was wrong with me. But it made it much worse. Here's why.

The truth is this: only you can ever know if a coping skill is good or bad for you. It always comes back to you. Here are some general guidelines to help you determine how you're coping.

The hundreds of answers I got to my Twitter mental health question, sadly, didn't surprise me as much as they should have. They actually made me really sad. And they pointed to a disturbing fact.

There's something that makes a lot of people uncomfortable.But it's something that's actually really effective in relationships.When used properly, this technique can improve your relationships while also increasing your mental he

Before you make a rash decision to physically go somewhere else, you have to ask yourself as many questions as you can. Learn about what those questions are--and why getting away may not be the answer you're looking for.

Now, some of these strategies take time. That's just life. But if you want to clear your mind and get through your day in peace and productivity, I've found that they're well worth the effort.