“I wear the white AWARE earrings for depression and anxiety. They go hand in hand for me - after having kids I became extremely anxious... all the time. As a mom of two young boys I deal with anxiety everyday. Something about my own kids cry gets me anxious beyond belief. What’s wrong, how am I going to fix it and fast? Depression runs in my family and I never understood it until I developed postpartum depression. It’s not just a snap of the finger and your happy. Depression gets overlooked as I personally did and needs more awareness. It needs to be AWARE that not every smile, perfect post/picture, job, etc displays that person is actually happy. I struggled with faking that I was not depressed because I felt like I needed to be strong, unaffected, and basically a battery that didn’t require charging. This is incorrect. A mom can get depressed and needs to voice their sadness as fast as we tend to our kiddos sadness.
I wear the red AWARE necklace for alcohol and substance abuse. I found myself drinking to cope with life and to disappear from the chaos. Alcohol only made this worse, with every drop. This cause need to be more AWARE for countless reasons. We live in a alcohol world where it is a society norm to drink. Drink on the weekends, drink at holidays, celebrations, funerals, sports, name the reason (good/bad) to drink and drinks will absolutely be served. Being a mom, it’s even printed on shirts, displayed on billboards, music, and televised that moms need to drink. Absolutely not ok and not normal. Wine time? What about missing the reason for the child’s whine? It needs to be aware that life, parenting, events, dating, etc. does not require alcohol. Life is lived happily and it must be aware that alcohol steals from the one life we have.
The term AWARE means to me that something needs more attention and to be voiced. We get caught up in voicing all the good and we forget to voice the real things. The things that matter. Alcohol and substance abuse needs to be more aware. Depression and anxiety needs to be more aware.” @pageafterpageofpaige