World Mental Health Day 2019.

With it being World Mental Health day I thought I'd open up about my own anxiety in the effort to encourage others to do so too. Even just mentioning to someone you trust, a teacher or even a work colleague can feel like a weight off your shoulders. Please don't keep quiet as I promise others will know someone or themselves who have felt the same way.

I've always been hesitant to call my worries anxiety. Why? Because I personally saw people assume you're being dramatic, attention seeking or trying to find a way people cannot 'question' to get out of things you don't want to do.

Back in September 2018, just after moving to university I finally decided to something about this. It had gotten to the point where I didn't want to leave my flat and things which should be exciting, like booking holidays, became something I dreaded. (I couldn't even be bothered to pick out a different outfit everyday, thats when I knew it had gotten bad!). I didn't understand why I couldn't just look forward to the future and would focus more on the factors which could go wrong and think of every way I could get out of it without upsetting the people I most wanted to please. Overthinking everything and coming to the conclusion none of it was worth it.

I did not want to bring it up to anyone, including family, because I didn't want to be seen as making it up or be a burden on anyone. Plus, its a very heavy topic to discuss and as I lived away I didn't feel I could get the help I needed when I wasn't around my family. Instead I decided to turn to the University, after all there are mental health nurses and people you can talk to advertised all over social media and traditional media. Sadly, that is not where I found my help. 

I found talking to a therapist really helped, and gave me the tools I need to understand what I was feeling and how I could move forward and learn to live with them. I'm still learning new ways to cope but am so happy to see just how far I've come in a year. Hopefully it's only upwards from here.

Here is the link to the World Mental Health Day website:https://www.mentalhealth.org.uk/campaigns/world-mental-health-day. 
Similarly, a link to the NHS page on mental health:https://www.nhs.uk/using-the-nhs/nhs-services/mental-health-services/how-to-access-mental-health-services/.

Speak soon,

Grace.