Mental Health Matters | Dealing with good news

Coffee image for Film Stories' regular mental health column
Share this Article:

When you’re naturally not the kind of person to celebrate something good, how do you give yourself permission to do so?


We all love a piece of good news, don’t we? It makes such a welcome change from… well, everything going on, right now. Good news can take on different forms, from ‘I won the lottery’ to ‘I found my favourite T-shirt that I thought I’d lost’, but it is always positive and is a source of pride or joy to the person making their announcement.

A couple of weeks ago, an agreement was made that gave me some good news to share, from a writing perspective. I decided to tell a select few people before I made an announcement. Excitedly, I typed the news out to a couple of people, and also happily told a couple of people in person. So rarely do I get something good to share, that I was practically giddy.

The reactions to my news, however, were muted. In fact, the best reaction I got was a ‘heart’ on one message I had sent.

After a brief post on my Instagram stories about feeling discouraged, I ended up talking with one amazing person who posited that the lack of enthusiasm stemmed from the lack of understanding about how hard writing work can be. And she is right, of course. Moreover, she was happy for me and it was nice to feel the acknowledgment that I had achieved something, however small it is in the grand scheme of things.

After a few days of thinking, I decided not to make an ‘announcement’ after all, because the news would probably not read as anything significant to many people who don’t write, whether as a career or a hobby. And given I had already felt disheartened, the risk of that occurring again just wasn’t worth it. Instead, I kept the information between myself and the six people I had already discussed it with.

Time was needed for me to sit with it and realise that while it did sting that I didn’t get more excitement from the people I told, it doesn’t in any way lessen the impact that it had on me.

I am allowed to be excited, proud, happy, and maybe even a little bit smug that I was given this opportunity. And I am absolutely allowed to do little happy dances when I am alone – not that I do, so don’t give me that look. It isn’t life changing news, but it is mine, and it is positive, and it suggests to me that perhaps my writing isn’t as ‘blah’ as I often feel it is. In fact, it reminds me of the other times I have had good responses to my work, such as poems that got actual gasps or tears, or short stories that were specifically acknowledged for their potential, and an article I once had published in an actual print magazine about films.

Maybe my news doesn’t matter to many people, either inside or outside the writing community. Maybe it’s not even technically news. However, it is no less fantastic because of how important it is to me.

This is not a situation exclusive to me. There are absolutely many people, possibly everyone, who have at least once felt their achievement somehow diminished by lack of confetti and applause from those around us. But know that your feelings towards that achievement are the only feelings that truly matter.

You are allowed to be excited, proud, happy, a little smug, and also do private happy dances when alone. And just know that somewhere, out in the big wide world, at least one person is excited for you.

Congratulations. Well done. I’m proud of you.

Share this Article:

More like this