Anger Isn’t the Opposite of Healing — It Is Healing (and why our version of a “mental health care package” comes with snacks, not shame)
Share
The other day, my friend was fuming.
She was visibly furious, talking with her hands, pacing the kitchen type of angry.
Some guy had been stringing her along for months. Giving her just enough attention to keep her hopeful, but never enough to make it real.
And I felt every word, because I’d just gone no contact with my own ex for the same reason.
It’s wild how clarity can feel like betrayal — realizing they were never confused, just comfortable.
So when she sighed and said, “Being angry is a waste of time,” I just looked at her like: No. Anger is the body’s way of saying, “I finally get it.”
Real Mental Health Isn’t About “Calm” — It’s About Honesty
We’ve been taught to see “good mental health” as calm, serene, unbothered.
But that’s not real. That’s repression with a candle burning next to it.
Good mental health is naming the thing.
It’s admitting: “Yeah, I’m angry.”
It’s eating a handful of pretzels while crying on the couch.
It’s texting your best friend twelve drafts and sending none of them.
It’s knowing that anger, sadness, jealousy, confusion — they’re part of healing, not proof that you’ve failed.
At Actually Something™, that’s the heart of what we believe:
you don’t have to bypass emotions to deserve comfort.
You just have to be willing to acknowledge them.
So What’s a “Mental Health Care Package,” Actually?
To us, it’s not a box full of self-improvement.
It’s a box full of self-permission.
Each Actually Something™ care package — whether it’s the Period Survival, You Were Right, I Was Wrong, or Seen & Supported box — is built around that idea:
That comfort doesn’t require perfection.
That snacks and emotional honesty can coexist.
That sometimes the most healing thing you can do is feel your feelings and feed yourself at the same time.
Inside every box, we include little things that meet people where they actually are:
- Snacks that taste like small mercies.
- Tools that encourage reflection, not pressure.
- Notes that validate instead of sugarcoat.
It’s our way of saying: You don’t have to be “over it” to deserve something soft.
Emotional Care, Without the Pretend
We don’t make mental health care packages that tell you to cheer up or move on.
We make ones that say:
“You’re allowed to be mad.”
“You’re allowed to miss them and still not text them.”
“You’re allowed to take up space in your own healing.”
Because pretending you’re fine doesn’t make you stronger.
It just makes you lonelier.
And sometimes the bravest thing you can do is sit with your anger — with a blanket, a snack, and a sense of self-respect that’s finally waking up.
The Bottom Line
Healing doesn’t mean deleting your emotions.
It means letting them finish their sentences.
Our care packages aren’t about forcing positivity — they’re about honoring the whole process, snacks and all.
Because feeling it is healing it.
And healing it deserves comfort.