Since around midday today, I have sat watching football and contemplating the best way to begin this blogging journal. I have decided that, in true Julie Andrew’s style, I will start at the very beginning. However, fear not. The beginning does not mean my entire life story, day of birth and all. The beginning means the start of the journey that brought me here to write this blog. The journey that led me to develop “Let’s Talk Mental Health”.
In September 2013, during a phone call to my mum, I accepted that I needed some serious help. My Mental Health issues were spiralling out of control and I needed some sort of support if I was going to make it through my final year of University. It is not for this particular blog to share what I was experiencing at that time, but instead, I will explain how my journey from that phone call, has led me to where I am today.
We often hear in the news, about the awful difficulties young people face, when trying to access Mental Health support during times of crisis and ill Mental Health. Whilst this issue is an ongoing concern for many individuals today, it was personally not my greatest challenge. Instead, having accessed support and began a course of therapy, the battle I faced was what I felt to be a combination of isolation, loneliness, and shame. It still shocks me now to know that I was, in fact, far from alone at this time - I was in fact one of the 25% of adults who experience a Mental Health issue every single year. But yet, as we still don’t talk about it freely in society, I felt very much on my own.
During my recovery, I identified two prevailing reasons to explain how I came to feel so isolated during this time. For anyone who has travelled South East Asia, they are kind of Same Same, But Different.
First things first. I soon learnt during this period, that Mental Health was not a topic of conversation that the majority of people felt comfortable discussing. As a result, I soon learnt not to bring it up, and therefore dealt with my illnesses in a far more isolated manner than I would have liked. Secondly, and just as common, some people were not familiar with the idea of Mental Illness and were therefore not aware of what it meant to experience such difficulties. Therefore with a lack of societal understanding or willingness to discuss my Mental Illness, the opportunities to disclose how I was feeling became very limited. Hence, again, I began to withdraw.
It is definitely important, at this point, to emphasise that not for one moment do I believe the above reasons to be the fault of particular individuals. How can we expect people to discuss comfortably, illnesses that are still a hugely taboo topic of conversation within our population? When would one learn about illnesses that are rarely taught in schools or discussed within society? Illnesses that are, in fact, often inaccurately represented by the media and which mislead the public to adopt incorrect stereotypes and understandings. Until I experienced Mental Illness, I certainly never imagined, nor understood, quite what it involved.
It was therefore, on the back of these realisations, I decided to use my experiences to help others understand the feelings associated with Mental Illness. I founded “Let’s Talk Mental Health” after leaving University, in the hope that I could increase awareness of the issues facing people like myself. It is important to recognise quite how isolating Mental Illness can be, but also how easy it can be to ease these feelings, through simple acts of friendship. To someone feeling cut off and emotionally isolated, something as simple as a text, or a chat over a cup of tea, is enough to alleviate these feelings and lead to a happier state of mind. I really hope that through these blogs, I can increase understanding and awareness, which, in turn, will encourage and enable people to be there for each other.
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