Before we were moms, we were her.

You know that woman us moms hear about. Ring a bell at all? She sleeps late on the weekends, has time to go to the gym and get her nails done--and frequently does things on a whim.

Remember 𝘩𝘦𝘳 now? Her body and life looked completely different, and she was able to finish conversations along with thoughts in her brain before someone interrupted—

yep, it’s coming back now, because we were once 𝘩𝘦𝘳, too.

But she wasn't perfect, either.

She had some struggles.

She may have struggled with body image issues and self-esteem. Or maybe she developed a full-fledged eating disorder.

She may have struggled with her mental health and, at times, without warning, experienced chest pains, rapid breathing, heart pounding inside her chest, and before she knew it, she’d be having a panic attack.

She may have struggled with depression and, at times, felt completely dead inside, unable to move from the bed.

She may have struggled with addiction, so much so that she cared for nothing else, and her life was at a standstill.

But she struggled, like everyone else.

She got help before she became a mom, or maybe she’s still struggling.

Or maybe she developed some new struggles along the way.

The point is she was someone before she was their mom—and that someone,

she still matters.

She needs to be nurtured, just like she was before.

We don’t want our struggles to creep back up again, because they can slowly. And we need to be strong enough to take them on.

And if she’s too busy buried under the homeschooling, diapers, laundry, and the entire mental load of motherhood, she may fall back because she doesn’t have enough time to take care of herself.

Because even though she’s hiding under all of the chaos, she’s still deep in there—and she still matters.

She actually matters more now because she has her entire family relying on her.

So, pull her out from deep in the trenches.

Pull her out of the chaos of everything

and let her remember her a bit, so she has the strength to keep on.

Because her needs to be remembered too.

*This post for Mental Health Month is dedicated to the moms with mental illness. We have a lot on our plates, especially during a pandemic (but we're still apart of the 1 in 5). We need to care for ourselves and be cared for in order to have the strength to care for our children.

This post originally appeared on the author's Facebook. Her book Living FULL: Winning My Battle with Eating Disorder is available on Amazon: https://amzn.to/2O4mJId