Today is World mental health day and its about time I shared my own story with you. Now I wanted to share this as a social media post as I think I get a better response and interaction but there's not enough characters so here we go haha! I have suffered with anxiety and depression since I was 14. Maybe a little earlier than that but I was diagnosed at almost 15 when I took myself to the doctors because I was having daily panic attacks. I didn't know why I was having them and I still don't to this day. Not very long after my school pushed me to start seeing a therapist through CAMHS and I was also diagnosed wirh depression. Now I have been is some very bad places mentally and I don't necessarily feel I need to share those with you. In my opinion people do not need to know the extent of your mental illness to understand what you have gone through or are dealing with. I think if you try and think about how much you're struggling and comparing it to someone else who is struggling it will take things out of context and make them much harder to deal with. Your battle is your own! It should not at anytime be compared to what other people are going through.
On the flip side that doesn't mean you shouldn't talk about it. Talk to those you feel comfortable sharing these feelings with. Talking and explaining what's going on in your head is terrifying. You feel vulnerable and scared that actually, your thoughts will intimidate and scare the person you're telling. When you get to the time that you can and do share, it WILL make a difference. Not instantly and thats important to remember too. These things take time. I have been battling as I said for a long time now and that might sound like a negative at first but let me tell you, I haven't been on medication since Lyra was about 18 months old. I am very proud of that, however I am confident in my self that should I feel I need to be medicated again I would seek the help. I'm not sure there is a conclusion to this blog, I don't have any answers for you and I can't tell you how to get better, but I want people to know that they can get better, they can talk and they can battle for years, weeks or months but however long you do battle for, things improve, things change every day and that you can beat whatever you're going through if you allow yourself enough time and find the best support for yourself. This is a fight and you can't do it on your own.
Lastly for anyone that has battled, is battling or is supporting others through their journey, I am so proud of you and what you have achieved. That might have been getting out of bed this morning. That might be taking a shower. It could he finally contacting a doctor and seeing medical support whatever you have achieved in the last day, even the last few hours is a positive!
I don't want this to be too long so I will end it here with a photo of my tattoo, it was my third tattoo and is a symbol used globally now I belive as a symbol for mental health.
A semi colon is used when you could end a sentence with a full stop but chose to carry it on with a semi colon. When you think you might want to put a full stop in your journey, remember that you can use a semi colon instead. Your story isn't finished.
