Basically, I felt that this forum needed a safe place for people to talk about the issues they are having mentally. This forum is great at giving help to the physical side of our bodies but we can't neglect our minds either!
I was thinking this subsection could be a place where people could share their stories and have their voices heard. We could also post favorite articles that either were inspiration, motivational, or educational, with regards to mental health of course.
The most important part of this section, if it is to be successful, is for people to be kind and understanding about someone's issues. Something that may seem insignificant to you, but could mean the world to someone else.
So I guess I'll begin with myself. If you don't feel like reading a rather long story, don't worry about it! Just tell me how you feel about the idea of a Mental Health subsection.
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My name is Steve. In my senior year of high school I had all the confidence in the world. I had a girlfriend, I was getting good grades, I was accepted to a good university in the program that I wanted to be in, I was playing AAA hockey and I was in shape, ripped even.
I've just finished my second year of university and things have changed a lot since then. I stopped playing hockey after high school. Mostly because I didn't have a car and I don't think my dad wanted to keep driving me. As a result I got a true case of the freshman 15. I was 175-180 in my senior year of high school. By the end of the next summer I was 204. One thing to note is that I had lost a lot of muscle mass as well, it was replaced by fat. University was hard. My first semester I received pretty good grades, I managed a 3.0. Which I was happy with. But second semester it came all crashing down. I failed two classes out of 6. Not good, not good at all. I haven't failed any more classes since then but my grades haven't really improved. I'm just scraping by. I think I began addicted to a video game to be honest. When I was playing I never really thought I was addicted, but I think I may have been. Do you really have to ask what game it was? WoW, World of Warcraft of course. It was a lot of fun, but man it was addictive. Everyone one of these factors had my life crumbling from under me. WoW had me going to bed late, sleeping in, getting my parents upset with my while also making me do worse in school. No longer playing hockey I gained a lot of weight, I lost my energy, and my confidence. Tired all the time, fat, with parents who are angry at you a lot of the time(completely justified) puts you in a bad mood. As a result, my relationship with my girlfriend started heading down hill. Obviously my weight gain made me less attractive, my struggles with my studies was tough on me, and as a result, her too. My lack of sleep made me cranky along with the troubles she had with her own life, our relationship suffered. Surprisingly, this carried on for another 2 semesters.
So the time setting is the end of April of this year, and I've decided to take a co-op job 2000 km away from where I live. I guess me leaving home was a breath of fresh air for my girlfriend because after a week she said that she wanted a break from our relationship. The 1 week break with no communication quickly became 3. This was brutal for me. Away from home, with the pain of losing my girlfriend of 3 years. I had quit playing WoW at the beginning of April, to study for exams. Originally I had planned to pick it up after exams, but I decided against it after realizing how detrimental it had been to my life. I felt very alone, my weekends were very boring and the weekdays even worse. I couldn't stop thinking about my girlfriend and how badly I had screwed myself.
So, armed with my iPod with the album Crisis by Alexisonfire (best angry music ever), I began working out again. I ran everyday, went on my rowing machine, did push ups and sit ups. Really motivated to become the person I once was. I have seen a significant change, as of today, I'm 182 pounds, my goal is 175. I feel a lot better about my body. I did return home two weeks ago for a weekend, and my girlfriend and I made amends. She confessed that she had decided to break up with me in person when she heard I was coming home. But, seeing how I had changed, she changed her mind and decided to try to work it out.
So here I am today, my body is almost to the point I want it to be. I have quit playing WoW and my girlfriend and I are talking everyday again. And although this sounds good, I still feel depressed at times. Just sad. I guess it will take some time to recover from the inner turmoil I felt over that 3 week break and the confidence I lost over the last two years. But, I feel like my life is on the right track again, and I think I have my priorities straight. School > My Body / My Girlfriend >>> Video Games. But I'm not the same. I find it difficult to be happy at times and even faking a smile is painful. Also, I feel emotionally weak. I can't take jokes like I used to be able to. I feel jealous and needy at times. I hate to admit it but I do. I have began searching on the internet to find ways to deal with these feelings but I have found nothing yet. Maybe I just need to continue on focusing at self improvement until I'm strong again. Anyways, that's how I'm feeling right now. Thanks for reading.
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So these are the types of anecdotes that I think I would expect from this subsection. I think with some helpful articles and the patience and kindness that the users on this forum have displayed, we can make a very successful addition to this forum. Tell me what you think, is this a good idea or a bad idea? How can we help moderate this type of forum? What are your stories? How can we help you? 
Source: http://weight-loss.fitness.com/weight-loss-health-conditions/49848-mental-health-thread.html
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