Melisa Mantha
Gosnold 2023 Falmouth Road Race Runner
Running for Awareness
My running story- started forever ago! I participated on the track and cross country teams in middle and at the beginning of high school. In my sophomore year, I started working and no longer had the ability to participate in extracurricular activities. I picked it back up a little in college and into my 20’s but didn’t really get serious about it until I had my first child when I was 30.
Becoming a mother was such a tricky transition in my life and running became my best medicine. I turned to running not only to stay physically in shape as I became a mother but to stay mentally in shape. Running also gave me my identity back- it was the one thing I did most often for myself, by myself.
In the last seven years, I have really been getting more serious about running. I have completed countless 5k races and other small distances, four half marathons, and my first full marathon earlier this year in Providence. I’ve delt with some injuries recently and I thought I’d shift my focus on to something that would cause less stress to my knees specifically, but still- I just can’t stop running. It is still my best medicine on so many levels. And I could not help myself to apply to run Falmouth for Gosnold despite promising I’d take the rest of the summer off running after my marathon! Hah!
Mental Health is Health
Addiction and mental health hit home for me. Someone very close to me has struggled with depression and bipolar disorder. I have watched this person have terrible “flair ups” so to say of their depression so much so that they have attempted taking their own life and landed in the hospital on more than one occasion. I have a degree in psychology and still it is so hard to wrap my head around the “why’s”, and the “how can I help.” There are no clear answers to these questions, sometimes I feel there are not even any possible answers.
Everything got much more real for me when I had my first child as mentioned above and I really struggled with some postpartum depression and anxiety. The inability to control the symptoms of these two illnesses became very real to me, and scared me, but it also made me a much more empathetic person especially to those dealing with mental illness. It’s real- I’m a nurse working in home care and my best description is that depression, anxiety, addiction is that they are as real as hypertension and diabetes. Once you’ve been diagnosed with these medical conditions, they simply don’t just go away. In fact, if you ignore them they get worse! The good news is that there are many treatment modalities effective in improving these illnesses like medications, therapy (if mental health is contributing to these issues), peer support, physical exercise, diet. Etc.
Help Is a Step Away
Someone very close to me also struggles with addiction. And it has been physically painful for me to watch this person go through their addiction struggles and to not have them be a regular healthy part of my life. Unfortunately- though this person has identified that they suffer with addiction, depression- they have not participated regularly in treatment and their life remains unchanged, unimproved.
Gosnold is there for these people, to get them started on their journey to good health. Although sometimes it may take people years to be ready to participate in full treatment- I want everyone to have that opportunity the moment they are ready and I don’t want anyone to have to wait or worse never be able to seek good treatment.
I support 100% the efforts of Gosnold, as well as all healthcare providers like Gosnold, and could not wait to apply to run Falmouth for this important and close to home cause.
