I’ve recently seen that teenager’s mental health is becoming a major problem in the US.

I think that it’s an important subject. It is very important to take care of ourselves. And I think the best way to do that is by setting some rules and boundaries.

When I started my new job a year ago in this biotech company, I was thinking about one thing: make friends.

I live here by myself, I wanted some friends to go out with. I focused on that so much that I forgot myself. I would be nice to them, even in situation where they were taking advantage of the situation. For example, I have a French accent, and every time I speak we hear that accent loud and clear, so my coworkers would always make fun of me. It was nice at the beginning, it made people laugh.

It quickly got out of control and it reached a point where it became hurtful. I would come home unhappy and hurt every day.

To take back my personal power and to make sure to protect myself (if I don’t do it nobody else will), I’ve decided to set some rules. I stopped focusing on wanting to have friends so bad and I started focusing on myself and how I can improve my relationship with myself, how I can love myself.

The major rule was: respect yourself and everything will follow. I don’t like being mocked, so I would be sure to show it. At every joke my face would stay stoic, no laugh, no smile.

My coworkers saw or felt that something was different with me, the jokes about my accent stopped rapidly, and then another world opened up. We began to have, I would say, normal conversations. Mostly small talk about our personal lives, then they shifted to conversations where we would give each other advice about little problems that life brings.

Set some rules for yourself.
For example, unfollow the people who you envy the most on Social Media or take some time to listen to what you want before making a decision.

Identity the thing that hurts you the most right now, then ask yourself “how can I make it stop?”

You’ve got this!

You deserve the best