Mental Health Awareness. | Me, My Anxiety and I.

Hey guys!

Today October 10th, Marks World Mental Health Day and I wanted to do a post dedicated to that as it’s something personal to me. I didn’t have a set plan for today’s post, I just wanted to do whatever came to me this morning. So whilst this may be a jumble of thoughts I just hope that it is somewhat helpful or offers someone a little comfort.

If you have followed my blog for a while you will know that I have Anxiety and have had Depression and I am on antidepressants at the moment. I’ve had anxiety for years, since I was about 11 and I finally got the courage to seek my doctors help when I was 20/21. For 10 years, I struggled with going out the house, staying over anywhere other than my house, some days just leaving the house at all until I finally said to myself ‘you need help’.  I still have bad days, anxiety doesn’t have a magic cure. I WISH. 

For years I’ve believed that I wasn’t normal because of my Anxiety and Depression and in the past few years I have learnt that nobody is normal. What even is normal?
So many people have Mental Health Issues but there is such a stigma out there that says opening up makes you weak or this whole idea that you’re not normal and it’s frustrating. A large number of celebrities have spoken out about their own struggles from Halle Berry, Stormzy, Emma Stone, Zoella, Professor Green, Lady Gaga, Selena Gomez, Demi Lovato. I could spend all day writing names on this post but the big message I want to get across is LOOK at all these celebrities, super successful people who suffer just like me and you. You can do anything you want to, your biggest dream can still come true. It will take time but you can still get there.

LONDON, ENGLAND – NOVEMBER 20: Professor Green attends the Global Make Some Noise event at Supernova on November 20, 2014 in London, England. (Photo by Stuart C. Wilson/Getty Images)

As I only have Anxiety and Depression, I can only comment personally on those two aspects of Mental Health Awareness but here are some tips which can be useful regardless.

Write Down Your Feelings. 

Before I sought out professional help, writing down my feelings was a big reliever for my anxiety and depression. Often I felt like my head was going to explode with all these thoughts and I needed a way to relieve that so I picked up some paper and a pen and just started writing. I wrote down everything I was feeling, what I wanted to do in that moment and afterwards I felt better. I often would then destroy that paper by ripping it into tiny shreds and throwing them away telling myself I’m ripping away some of my darkest fears here.

Say Goodbye to Negative People.

This one is a hard one. You could have been friends with this person for years, I had. But they weren’t good for me. The comments they constantly make, the ‘get over it’ remarks and everything else are not something you have to accept. It will be hard but in the long run I can honestly say by cutting out those negative people, I am SO much happier. I don’t worry half as much as I did about what people think of me because I don’t have that person (who I thought was a friend) in my ear telling me to ‘go and change because you’re not wearing that.’

Saying NO is ok.

If you don’t want to go out and do something you can say NO. You are allowed to say no, you don’t have to force yourself to do anything because your friends may call you boring. Being comfortable with where you are is the main priority.

Everyone’s mental health journey is different.

What works for one person might not work for you. If you are like me and you scour the internet, blogs and YouTube looking for people who speak out about their own mental health issues for book recommendations, tips to relieve your stress and anxiety just remember that those tips might not work for you. Everyone is different, everyone has different triggers so what might work for one person might not work the same for you and that doesn’t mean something is wrong with you (something I felt) it means you just need to find something else which will work. Don’t be disheartened. Sadly there isn’t a magic cure, it is a journey.

Other helpful posts to check out

I have previously spoken about my Anxiety Journey before on my blog, please find these posts as follows if you wish to find out more, find tips or just read my rants about life with anxiety. Anxiety Rant| When things get rough. | Tips to help relieve your Anxiety. | Anxiety – My Story.

My lovely friend Michelle over at Book Adventures has also recently done some posts regarding Mental Health Awareness where she shared some book recommendations which feature characters with different Mental Health issues. Be sure to check out her posts; Mental Health Awareness Book Recommendations Part One | Part TWO

If you ever need to talk. Then I am here for you.
You are not alone.

 

 

 

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