I’ve accepted that I am just one of the millions of Americans that have depression and that my self-care has to look a little differently than others. I’ve been learning my symptoms and their patterns and creating healing rituals that build healthy bonds for my mind, body, and soul. Here are eight of them I can’t do without.

I knew it wasn’t up to me to decondition my family of their century’s worth of preconceived notions about mental illness. Yet I realized, by being honest with them about what I was going through and getting treated for it, it was exactly what I was doing.