As we start our build season, I’d like to bring up a important topic we all need to remember: Mental health. And I’d like to talk about how not paying attention to my mental health with robotics permanently affected my life.
This was a revolutionary off season for me. Certain events, such as me leaving my old team and me being hospitalized thrice, drive home the point that I was not focusing on my mental health as much as I should have while doing robotics. I was putting too much pressure on myself and I was burned out from making robotics my entire identity.
FRC is an incredible thing. Because of this program, I’ve experienced happiness unlike anything I’ve ever known. I’ve made friends unlike any I’ve had before. But while I was chasing that high, I sacrificed too much. I let myself be abused and bullied. I let myself take the blame for other’s mistakes. I let others disrespect my work and my differences.
As I have mentioned a couple times on here. I have PTSD. PTSD, also known as Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, is a mental condition that can arise after an individual goes through a very traumatic experience. And I was diagnosed with this, partially because of robotics. It was eye opening to realize what I had done to myself, and what I let others do to me. It took months after I left my old team before I stopped having panic attacks and flashbacks.
I am here to say, please be better than me. Please remember, as we go through build season, the real reason why we’re all here. To have fun. To make friends. To have new experiences. We are not here to destroy ourselves. Please take breaks. Please don’t pressure yourself too much. Please lean on your teammates and mentors if you need to. It is okay. More okay than you know.
I would do anything to go back to my freshmen self and tell her this. I hope my story can at least help others, even if it’s too late to change what happened to me.
I remember you reaching out to me about some of these issues and asking about how remote students work on our team. I’m very happy to hear that you’re out of the woods and doing much better! If no one else has told you this: that takes a lot of work and you should be proud of yourself.
Taking care of your mental health at all times, but especially during build season is super important. I’ve had my own struggles with mental health that this post made me want to share that hope doesn’t obsucure the origional post but emphasizes the point that you’ll be able to contribute much more effectively if you remember to also care about yourself.
My sophomore year on my robotics team I was going through deep depression which was exacerbated due to my gender dysphoria and still being relatively closeted I was out to most of the team as non-binary which was a wonderful boon but no preferred name yet and I wasn’t out in many other sectors of my life. I pushed myself way too hard during build season and after comp kind of lost myself fully and was in a psyche ward about 2 weeks later. It took another hospitalization, a long partial hospitalization program, therapy, medication, and fully coming out with preferred name before I started to stabilize a bit. Sometimes higher level care is necessary and there needs to be some destigmatization, but I’d really encourage making sure to prioritize self-care and outpatient level professionals and avoiding full on crisis if at all possible. My teammates were also a wonderful support during that time and now. Now as a senior I’m trying to check myself as the intensity of build season gets underway. I cannot echo this sentiment enough, take care yourself, I feel pretty confident in saying that whoever is reading this has value and is deserving of respect from yourself and others. Now I’ll get off this soapbox of comment and wish you all good luck season and remember to care for yourself.
Hi Asha. I’m sure that you mean well but by definition, a professional crisis counselor is someone who has a master’s degree or PhD in psychology or psychotherapy and is licensed by a professional board, this is true in all 50 states and most other countries. There are different roles to play in the lives of people in crisis, including providing advice or being a good friend, but the role of professional counselor requires extensive graduate level training and certification.
Yes thank you, as much as it may seem like I am nitpicking the language, that description is much more helpful as folks need to understand where you’re coming from. I appreciate the clarification.