Life after near-death

I felt like this blog post needed writing, in the chance that it may help someone or even have an impact on them. SUICIDE: a word we don’t like to talk about. We need to talk about suicide. I attempt to take my own life. It didn’t feel like a decision. If I hadn’t have

How to help someone, to get help

Often we can spot when someone close to us is struggling with mental health and needs help. It's incredibly hard to watch them go through this alone. They may not feel able to reach out themselves, so the big question is "how can you support them?" This is an area of uncertainty for many of

“You have memories to look back on today”

Around this time six years ago, I gave up. I had been suffering in silence for a while I couldn’t face the pain of living each day. Three days before my first GCSE exam, I attempted to end my life. Obviously, this failed and instead I ended up very unwell, in hospital and still sitting

Battling COVID-19’s Depression

I find it easy to write when I’m in a good place, but I think it’s important right now that I talk about how and why the world pandemic is affecting me, my Depressions and a huge number of us. I wish that I could say that I am mentally prepared for it. I have

Talking the Talk

Today is Time to Talk Day, encouraging everyone to have a conversation about mental health. People make it seem so easy, laying themselves bare online to the world. But I promise it's not. It takes time, years even, so don't feel ashamed if you're not quite there yet. I realised I had Depression at the

Medicating Me

Pills are an aspect of depression that really isn’t discussed enough. A total of 70.9 million prescriptions for antidepressants were dispensed in England in 2018, yet there are people scared to take them due to the cloud of shame surrounding medicating mental health. We’re now talking about mental health more than ever, but its important

World Mental Health Day Take-away

Usually, I don't spend much time on social media as it very rarely brings me much happiness. However, this week I have been so moved by what I've seen. So many of my friends and acquaintances have been sharing a part of their stories with mental health for World Mental Health Awareness Week, on a

Train Your Brain

Coming out the other end of a tunnel travelling across many years, I've passed by many thinking patterns that have stopped me in my tracks, and many that kept me on the route. I believe that working towards changing my brain's behavior has been the breakthrough to the outside world and far better than changing

Noting and Noticing

This morning I stood on my patio, feeling the sun shining and felt complete content and happiness. I had a flashback to this time last year, stood in the exact same place, feeling the exact same sensations of the sun but far from the same feelings. Even though I'm in the same place,  the journey

You’re the Fairest of All

Throughout teen-hood, I've battled with my body image. Over the years I've been blonde, dieted to the point where food was no longer enjoyable, considered cosmetic surgery and overall just wanted to be in someone else's body. We're told, "That's just what being a teenager is all about", But for a lot of us, this