@mamacita Thank you so much!! No need to apologize for it being long, I appreciate it! I agree with all the tips you've shared with me-- Exercising daily, eating healthy, having a healthy sleep schedule, etc, are all good and healthy things to do, both mentally and physically. It's just a matter of actually applying those principles in real life. I feel like we all know these things in the back of our minds, but it's hard to actually apply it and put it into practice, you know? Maybe I'll try to make more of an effort to work on these things (like, my terrible sleep schedule, for example; staying up to 3AM and sleeping to 3PM isn't good, for obvious reasons lol).

As I mentioned earlier, I agree with the sentiment that medication isn't everything, and that it really depends on an individual! The thing with medication is that you can't just take a pill by itself - you also have to start developing healthy habits and strategies along with it. It's an entire process, and so I definitely understand the sentiment of avoiding medication for younger kids, unless the individual really needs it/it proves effective for them. I think that when it comes to people in my age group, we should really focus on like. Learning healthy coping strategies, how to deal with stress healthily, making sure to take care of our own mental health, etc, so that we can apply those habits/methods/strategies as we grow older and have to deal with more stress + responsibilities. Without knowledge of those strategies and whatnot, we'll get overwhelmed and crash and burn, if that makes sense?

And hey, you know, I just turned 14 today! It's my birthday, ahah. I should maybe take the time to celebrate it a little, jkalds.