Welcome to my Mental Health Blog!

Hello, this is just a little welcome to my mental well-being blog, to help you to get to know why I am doing this and how it can benefit you on your journey of dealing with your own mental health issues. Everything that I will discuss is based on personal experiences of my own, so this is not the place if you need serious and professional help. I do have links to mental health hotlines on my page and I will also mention some at the end of this post. This is my own personal guidebook of my experiences that I hope will give you a small insight into how to deal and hopefully overcome your own struggles.

You may be wondering why am I doing this? Well, when I was going through a tough time with my mental health, I felt really alone with how I felt. The school that I was at did not take it seriously, even though I was having panic attacks three times a day. Also, at that age I felt like there was an enormous stigma towards and surrounding mental health problems, which meant the people around me put it down to my age and that I was being ‘hormonal’. So, this blog is going to be like a letter to the younger me, the me that felt so unaided in what she was feeling and felt like the whole world was against her for being sad. This is me speaking to anyone who has ever felt like that and telling them that it is okay not to be okay.

Additionally, I want to help break the stigma of talking about mental health and I will further discuss the issues surrounding this in other blog posts. Hence the reason for naming this blog not only after my favourite animal but also after the phrase, ‘let’s talk about the elephant in the room’. I think it is extremely important, especially in this current climate for people to be more open about their mental health in order to create this feeling of togetherness in a very isolated society.

Here is a little bit about my journey: I have suffered with anxiety for as long as I can remember but I began with panic attacks at the age of fourteen. Unfortunately for me this was the time in school when people thought that having mental health problems was a 'trend' which disregarded people who were actually suffering. It is an understatement to say the least of how embarrassed I became because of my panic attacks as I was under the impression that the whole school thought I was just attention seeking. This inevitably led me not getting the help I needed because I thought that I was just overreacting. At this time, I felt so alone and miserable to the point where jokes were not funny, events I was invited to were not exciting and I thought that the whole world was judging me. Three years later I became really low and decided that I needed to seek help. I put on a brave face and went to my GP. However, they overlooked me and my problems and just sent me to another organisation dealing with mental health. This led me to getting put on a waiting list for months. Once I finally was able to get help, I was eighteen, they put me in a focus group of people who were all adults and tried to teach us about CBT (cognitive behavioural therapy). This did not help and made me feel so much worse which I will talk about in a future post. Fast forward to being nineteen at university and I was a mess. I truthfully hated life and thought that anything that I did or said was being condemned and I did not want to go out and have fun with my friends which led to me being in a state of depression. It took a lot, but I eventually thought that enough was enough and went to the university GP. This doctor was so much more beneficial than my one back at home (she still checks on me now). This step meant that I was able to seek counselling and get the real help that I needed. Now, I am able to understand and manage my anxiety and depression. Although, this does not mean that I do not still have bad days, but it does mean that these days have the potential to be a lot better because of the practices I have put in place. I am now twenty and I can hand on my heart say that I love my life.

Finally, it goes without saying that everyone’s issues are different, and everyone deals with them differently. It took me five years to get the help that I actually needed, and it can take some people even longer. It is such a huge step, but it is a step that is one hundred percent worth it. If you are in a bad place at the minute there are so many outlets that you can look into to talk about how you feel, especially if you are not ready to talk to a doctor. I have made a link to the NHS page that tells you all the different phone lines you can call and websites you can have a look at. Remember you are not alone in this and even talking to a family member or friend is such a huge step and you should feel proud of yourself. A personal recommendation of mine is Samaritans because they are so calming and helpful. Please subscribe to my blog if you want to be kept informed about different topics and discussions surrounding mental health.

This is the link to the NHS website: https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/stress-anxiety-depression/mental-health-helplines/