For those of you who have been diagnosed with a mental illness, how have you dealt with it?

it's hard to answer on the survey up there because i used multiple methods.. medication for a time, coping skills, drugs, and whatever other ways i could manage. i had to learn to deal with the stigmas, people calling me names, misunderstanding me or what it is i have. and not only that. beating myself up over it, because it's frustrating, and i feel as though i should be able to overcome it on my own.i've even dealt with people abusing me physically because of it thinking i could make myself stop thinking the way i think or being the way i am. i got to a place of a lot of peace, and every so often, i lose some of it and fall down in a deep pit. and it's the hardest thing EVER to claw my way back out of that hole. sometimes it feels so easy to let go and stay there, to drown, and wallow init. to not care, but you can't help but want better for yourself.