Yesterday’s blog didn’t post and feeling like it’s a chore to write // 07/04/17 + 08/04/17

Yesterday’s blog posts seems not to have published and i can’t figure out where it’s gone.. once I find it I’ll post that on another day! 

I’m not writing much tonight as I’m giving myself a bit of a night off after a very long day of university lectures and then travelling. I’m exhausted and almost even forgot to write on here… 

Tonight I’m feeling quite insincereand  like  it would be a chore to write a full post so my question for today is.. 

what would you like to see me write about this month? 

We can beat this! 

My experience talking to Childline // 06/04/17

Tonight I had my 6th session of Childline volunteer counselling training which means I am almost halfway through the training. So I thought I would write a linked post not about my training experience or being a counsellor but about my experiences of contacting Childline when I was younger. I have spoke a lot in the media about what I spoke to Childline about and how I went about that but I thought it would also be ice to put this on here as it was part of my recovery and still very relevant as it is the reason I am training as a volunteer.. So here goes;

If I remember rightly I was about 14/15 when I first contacted Childline.. I had been struggling with mental health difficulties (anxiety, panic attacks, low mood, low self esteem and self-harm) for around a year without anyone noticing and without me telling anyone. It was getting progressively worse and I was finding everyday life increasingly difficult. I was starting to struggle to maintain relationships with family and with friends as well as struggling to even stay in lessons in school never mind answer a question in class. I was turning to self-harm for a few different reasons at different times. Sometimes it was about the fact that physical pain was easier to deal with than the mental torture I felt I was going through. At other times it was a form of self-punishment and I genuinely felt I deserved it. A lot was going on and I just had no idea how to deal with it or express it to anyone. I couldn’t even answer questions in class from a teacher never mind talk about these feelings to anyone.. so I had kept quiet.

But it was getting worse and I was getting desperate. I wanted things to change but I didn’t know how to change things. I wanted to feel better but didn’t know how to. More importantly I got to the point where I wanted to tell someone.. I wanted help.. I just didn’t know who to turn to. It would have been too much for me to tell my family.. it would upset them too much.. they’d worry and they had enough going on. I wasn’t comfortable with telling them. I couldn’t talk to teachers.. they wouldn’t listen or understand and they might tell my family.. I had no idea what the outcome would be if I told someone. I barely knew what was going on myself and couldn’t make sense of it all so how was I supposed to explain that to anyone else? That’s when I decided to contact Childline.

I had always known the service existed but didn’t know too much about it. I’m sure a lot of children at some point threaten to call Childline on their parents when they aren’t happy about something. I knew you could talk to Childline about abuse.. but I wasn’t being abused..I’d seen posters though and they said you could talk to them about anything. But again I couldn’t find the words.. ringing would be useless as I wouldn’t say anything and anyway my family might hear me..I knew they had a website so decided to go on and have a look. When I got on there I saw that they had an online chat service. It was at that point I realised I might actually be able to tell someone. I first looked around the website, looked on the message boards, checked their confidentiality policy all while I worked up the courage to see if I could actually make an account and start a chat.. eventually I did. I clicked to start and it said there would be a wait but that was okay.. I’d got this far,, I had to try it.

I got through.. and I was so anxious.. I didn’t know what to say.. do I go straight in and blurt it all? do I say a bit and test it out? Can I really talk to them about anything? people are worse off than me.. other people deserve to talk more.. the thoughts were racing around my mind. I was terrified but I was also desperate. I said Hello and was greeted by a friendly counsellor. I started to go into some of it and then helped me slowly start to talk about what was going on. I was a long paragraph type of young person and I ended up writing loads. We discovered writing was my way of expressing.. where I couldn’t express the words out loud.. I could write them and not just write them but express my feelings quite coherently. Childline didn’t push me to talk about anything I didn’t want to and they didn’t judge me either. It was reassuring to know I had someone to talk to that wasn’t somebody I knew.. it made such a difference. We explored what had been going on and how I had been feeling and what if anything I had done so far to try and change things. Things started to make more sense. Writing my feelings and thoughts down made them less scary.. I could see what was going on but I still wasn’t sure what to do. Stopping self-harming was scary it was my coping mechanism and my anxiety couldn’t be waved away with a magic wand. There was no quick fix but there was someone I could talk to.

I didn’t just contact Childline once.. I contacted them lots of times over the following few years.. they were there when I needed to just talk or to have a perspective from somewhere other than people I knew. They gave me a voice when I needed it most. Different chats were about different things and we just talked about whatever I wanted to. Sometimes it was just a more general chat to distract me from urges to self-harm. Other times we explored my options and the actions I could take to start changing things. Childline had helped a lot by just being there to listen to me but I really did need more professional support. They helped me work out a plan. They recognised how writing was helpful for me in order to express things and was far less scary than talking. Together we worked out that a good way for me to get the help I needed was to write it down in a letter and to give it to someone. We explored who that might be and decided on a pastoral teacher at my school and we also explored what the outcomes of this might be so it wouldn’t be so scary. We talked about it a lot before I actually gave a letter to anyone but in the end I felt empowered enough to do that. Things started to move on and I was getting referrals to mental health services and to school counselling. I was nearly 16 at this point.. so much had fed into what was going on. Exam stress, family stress, peer pressure, not fitting in, body image.. lots of things and none of it was going away anytime soon. I needed therapy from CAMHS so that I could take back control and start to build strategies of coping with the challenges life threw at me. Therapy made a huge difference and finally helped me to stop self-harming.

Without Childline I wouldn’t have got to that point.. in fact I don’t actually know where I would be today. They helped me even once I started to get support. They were there when I felt things till weren’t going right. They were there when I had urges to self harm.. they distracted me and meant for that one extra night I was self-harm free. They gave me a space.. a space to be me.. a space to explore what I wanted to.. a space where I had a voice. At times I probably became quite reliant on the service.. I went through a period at the start when things were really difficult of contacting them every day at times or every few days at least. They were the only people I had to talk to though. They were then there for me through all the ups and downs.. the relapses, finishing exams, getting discharged from therapy. I always knew there was somewhere I could turn. At times I was probably also a pain.. I’d got the timing figured out for how long a chat usually lasted and knew the phrases they used to end chats but would try to keep them going because I just felt like I was really being listened to or had ore to say. But I always understood why they worked they way they did and appreciated that. It wasn’t all great.. they were occasions where I had counsellors who I just didn’t click with and I would end the chat and request another instead because it wasn’t worth me wasting 40 minutes talking to someone who was just getting frustrated with. When I had a good chat though which had been really helpful I always made sure to thank them and to show them why I really valued their support.. they’re all volunteers after all and some of them genuinely did change my life for the better. Childline meant a lot to me.. and it always will. Now is my time to give back and my aim is to complete training and be on the other side of that line.

Childline gave me a voice when I couldn’t talk to anyone. They stopped me harming myself at some of my darkest moments. They kept me afloat until I could get the support I needed. I was lost and they helped me figure it all out. They listened and that was all that I needed.

I am doing a skydive in October to raise money for the NSPCC to give back too.. Childline changed my life and I want them to be able to support as many young people as possible. Please if you can donate to my fundraising page.. it would mean the world to me and to the charity (and this isn’t just about rising money for me.. it’s more than that. I value the NSPCC more than anyone could ever understand and this is just one of the ways I feel I can give back!)

https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/Naomi-Lea

I did really well in my GCSEs and A levels. I went on to study Psychology at university. I stopped self-harming and haven’t self-harmed in nearly 2 years now. I built up my resilience. I am happier and more confident. I am now in a position where I can help others. I volunteer with the young volunteers participation team and am training to be a Childline counsellor. I found my voice.

I will never forget what Childline did for me and will always value the incredible work they do to support so many young people across the UK!

We can beat this!

How the project logo was formed // 05/04/17

Today I thought I would talk a little bit about what thought went into the logo for my newly rebranded mental health project ‘Spot the Signs – Adnabod yr Arwyddion’.

For anyone that doesn’t know I started a mental health project 2 years ago now which is focused on encouraging people to spot the signs of mental illness in young people through workshops and a film. I then decided I wanted to take it even further and create a website and some branding for it and so we relaunched (with the website coming soon!)

Here’s the logo;

It is something I really am proud of as I created it myself with the help of an amazing friend to add the writing round the edge as I got confused with that! I just sat on my laptop and decided to start messing a round with graphics to see what I could come up with.. and that’s what I created in the end!

I’m not quite sure why I went for the colour scheme that I did.. I think that was possibly a more personal choice as coincidentally the blue and the green happen to be my favourite colours! Now onto the meaning of it..

I started off with the eye shape as the projects main aim is spotting the signs which links nicely with vision so I thought this was a good way of representing it. I didn’t like the eye by itself as it seemed boring and so decided to mess around with it a bit. That’s when I decided to add the heart as the pupil of the eye. I thought this nicely represented the caring side and how I encourage people to spot the signs and then be supportive. I quite liked that how it was but still felt it was missing something.. that’s when I decided to add the speech bubble. We have the eye for spotting, heart for support but we also needed something to represent talking. Talking is a huge part of the message I spread on my project as talking about things can make such a huge difference in the process of getting help. The speech bubble fitted nicely and then I added the circle around the edge and I was happy with it!

The logo wasn’t something I thought carefully about it was something that the ideas came to me while just experimenting with other ideas. But it is something I’m proud of and hopefully it will come to represent a project that really can make a difference to this living with a mental illness and also those without.

This month I will helpfully be putting up some more posts about the project too as we continue to progress and reach our goals!

Today my question is;

What is something you created that you are proud of?

We can beat this!

Feeling ill + not feeling like writing… //04/04/17

This isn’t a great start to BEDA at all.. Today I’ve been feeling quite ill (physically) and tonight I just really don’t feel like writing much. My mind is blank and I don’t have much that I want to wrote out. I mean I have plenty of ideas but I just don’t have the energy to sit and type them out.. so for today I’m just going to leave you with a quote..

I’ll be back tomorrow with a post that’s actually worth reading I hope!

We can beat this!

A busy but normal day! // 03/04/17

Today hasn’t exactly been a very chilled but busy day and I’ve really enjoyed that. I spent the morning in lectures followed by a meeting about my project and then meeting up with one of the people I’m living with next year to book house viewings. I enjoy days like this because I’m spending a lot of time around people that I really like being around.  Because of that today went so quickly.

I also got my exam timetable today… and back even last year that moment would have sent me into meltdown. Exams and me were not good mix in terms of my anxiety (not that most people enjoy exams). Exam season was something, like everyone, that I used to dread but not because of the exams themselves but because of the panic attack and anxiety that I would have to deal with. Since coming to university things have been different. My January exam season passed without a single panic attacks. Yes I was anxious to an extent but it was a normal amount and wasn’t excessive at all like I’m used to.

I’m hoping for a similar relatively low stress exam season this summer. My exams are just over a month away and that is scary. By the 16th of May I will have finished all of my first year of university – terrifying!! But getting my exam timetable today wasn’t so bad.. I looked at it and it’s actually made me feel quite motivated to get on with revision. I’m feeling quite calm about exams at the moment and that may change but I can just take that as it comes. I’m really hoping I can get through another exam season without panic attacks but we will just have to wait and see. I do think the university structure makes a difference as I definitely don’t feel the same amount of pressure here as I did in school. I obviously want to do well and need to pass to get onto next year but any pressure there is is coming from myself to from anyone else. That works for me and I genuinely feel that has made a huge difference to how I feel around exam time but that’s not the same for everyone.

What did you find got you through exam time?

We can beat this!

Youth Led Volunteering Conference // 02/04/17

Today I attended the Welsh Youth Led Volunteering Conference in Cardiff as an #iwill ambassador. I became in ambassador in November 2016 and really enjoy being able to spread the message of the campaign as well as tell others about my social action journey. Today I was helping out by leading a workshop on the campaign to attendees with another ambassador, Roxanne.

I really enjoyed today and it allowed me to reflect really on how far I have come and how much volunteering and social action really did change things for me. I’m a long way from the me that was struggling so badly with anxiety that I couldn’t even stay in a classroom. Today I was able to co-lead a workshop to small groups – something that I would never ever have imagined doing. The reason I’m able to do these things now is because of the benefits thats social action had on my wellbeing. It gave me confidence and allowed me to have a purpose so that I no longer felt worthless. It gave me a platform to meet likeminded people and be inspired by others to do bigger and better things. Social action for me is not just something I do, it’s a way of life. I enjoy it so much and helping out at events like today’s always remind me of that.

I met some truly amazing young people at the conference today who are doing some seriously incredible work in the their communities and are also really dedicated to getting others involved. I came away feeling so energised instead of tired and that is always a good sign!

Today as part of the workshop both Roxanne and I shared our social action journeys in storyboard form before then getting everyone else to do theirs to help make the link between the #iwill campaign and the work they are already doing. I thought I would share on here today my brief social action journey (a longer version may come at some point!) which I shared today;

In theory my social action journey started aged 7ish, not that I recognised it as that at that age! My Mum was really heavily involved in PTA (Parent Teacher Association) at my primary school and was aways helping out with their events and fundraising. I was always really excited about this and always wanted to help with whatever they would let me. But things really got serious (in a good way!) in high school. We were required in our later years of high school to complete voluntary hours as part of our Welsh Baccalaureate qualification. I found that these hours came so easily to me as I was already involved with quite a lot and I actually had to make decision as which hours I wanted to count towards it. From here I was involved with a number of different organisation from small school projects like being a peer mentor to being involved with big national charities like the NSPCC. I then also got involved with Fixers where I created my mental health campaign and video which had huge success. In November 2016 I was selected as an #iwill ambassador as I was so passionate about social action. After that I got even more passionate about it and decided to really establish my project so applied for some funding, created a logo and also created some volunteering opportunities for other young people! My #iwill pledge was that I would show the positive impact that social action can have on mental health and self-confidence! Through my project as well as on social media and when talking to other young people I am always trying to show that. Social action has given me friendships, improved mental health, fun, a better CV, confidence, new skills and amazing opportunities! I don’t know what’s coming next, I can’t predict the future but what I do know is that I’ll continue to share my passion for youth social action and also hopefully carry on the work I’m doing! I don’t imagine social action not being part of my life anytime soon.

That’s just some of my story and there is so much more I could say but I’ll save that for another time. I’m truly grateful for the opputunities I’ve had and the ones I continue to get. Today reminded me of that and I’m really glad I got the chance to attend today and to lead on the workshop.

My question for you today is;

What social action have you been involved in and what impact has it had on you?

We can beat this!

Blogging everyday of April again?!

So.. It’s been a good few months since I last blogged on here (I feel like I start a lot of my posts like this…) but recently I’ve found myself wanting to blog again. SO I thought to get back into it I’d blog every day of April again!

This month I’m going to be doing a lot of travelling back and forwards between home and University as I need to be in Cardiff most weeks for volunteer training! This means plenty of time to write blog posts so hopefully like last year I will succeed at writing a blog every day of this month. They’ll be on varied topics such as updates on my current mental health, tips and tricks, mental health project updates, events I go to, current mental health news and so much more!

I really hope that this month I get my enjoyment of blogging back and that I can rite some really useful and enjoyable posts! I also hope that this month I’m also going yo start reading a lot more blogs too so please leave links to any good blogs that you recommend (they can be your own!) in the comment!

We can beat this!

#iwill ambassador // Monday

On Monday (21/11/16) I attended an event in Church House Conference Centre and then the House of Commons to celebrate #iwillWeek. At this event they were celebrating the announcement of 50 new ambassadors and I was lucky enough to have been selected as one of those 50 volunteers. You can see how I got to this point in this blog post. Now I want to talk a bit about the event on Monday now that I can finally announce the other thing that happened that day. Soon, I will also put up a post about my plans from here for developing my own social action and promoting social action for young people.

What happened on Monday?

I woke up early to travel down to London for the event. A fairly stress free journey down to London with only tiny delay and so the day started off well. When I arrived into London. At the station I met my plus one for the event, Julie from Fixers UK. Julie was the broadcast researcher when my project was broadcast on ITV Wales and she was one of my only contact left in Fixers. Because it Fixers were one of the organisations that really kick-started my social action I had decided I wanted them to be there with me on the day. I also knew of a few other people going who I volunteer with at the NSPCC so we met up wth them on the way and we were all very excited for the day ahead. We headed to Church House Conference Centre to start the day.

The room we were in was amazing and the picture above is one of the roof in the room we were in and this is one of my favourite photos I took. We got to sit and chat for a while getting to know people and catching up with the other people I knew! Then it was time for our buffet lunch. My fussy eating did not play in my favour but I found some nice things to eat in the end. The rocky road they had was absolutely amazing and so so rich.. it’s making me hungry just thinking about it!

After a few welcoming speeches the new ambassadors and our plus ones were separated. Our plus ones went up to the balcony and quite honestly I have no idea what they did so I can’t tell you that part of it. We were split into small groups and has some little workshops so I will take you through what I learnt/did in them. On a side note my group (as was the entire room actually)was full of some really inspirational young people involved in such a variety of social action projects.

Our first workshop was with Step Up To Serve’s Young Trustee, Chloe Donovan who told us a bit about how she got to being where she is before we moved onto the activity. Our challenge was to think of some of the root causes as to why only 4/10 young people aged 10-20 take part in social action and what could be done to overcome these barriers. We realised that there was quite a few reasons why young people may not take part including a lack of opportunities that would suit them in their area, lack of family support and not seeing the benefits. We decided that there were many ways this could be overcome including wing sure that schools advocated social action, parents are made aware abut the benefits and how we as ambassadors can show the reality of the positive effects social action can have on the community and also the individual.

Then it was time to move on – Our second workshop was with Alice from The Nicest Job In Britain who was showing is the many benefits of blogging. We did a little quiz on blogging/vlogging and learnt some surprising facts about it. She gave us her top tips for blogging and how to get started. I had the opportunity to tell her about my blog and the content I make and others in our group also talked about their blogs or blog ideas. I really loved one of her top tips which was to keep it positive as we already have enough negativity in the world. I stand by this and really do try to make my posts as positive as they possibly can be showing hope even with the most challenging topics. It also made me want to make sure that that continues on this blog and that it can offer some positivity to others and to me in the darkest of times. Her story was incredible and I now really want The Nicest Job In Britain!!

Next workshop was one with a man from the Eden Project who told us about their ‘Big Lunch” project where they gather communities to feed the community spirit. I am now really interested in holding a Big Lunch so we’ll have to see if I can manage to organise one as it is right in the middle of my exam period this year! It seems like such an awesome event to have thought and great to really boost community spirit. During this workshop we also discussed how often people who help others don’t always get any recognition for doing so which is completely fine but to some can be frustrating. We talked about making sure to recognise those who inspired us in the hope they would recognise those who inspired them to keep the chain going. Hearing the difference you have made can make you want to carry on even more!

Our final workshop was with Saeed Atcha, another of the Young Trustees of Step Up To Serve. He didn’t tell us much about how he got being where he is as he was doing a speech later in the day. We jumped straight in and were discussing our roles as #iwill ambassadors and what we could do to inspire and create change in our communities. This was a really motivating discussion and it got me thinking about where I got from here and how I can keep creating change. We each pledged a thing we could do and I will discuss that in my next blog post.

After these workshops drew to a close we rejoined our plus ones and had an opportunity to chat and network again before it was time to get our #iwill ambassador certificates. These certificates were presented to us by Professor James Arthur (Director of Jubilee Centre for Character and Virtues) and Adele Roberts (Radio 1 DJ) who we had our pictures taken with! We then had some group photos and did my first ever proper Mannequin Challenge. (I still don’t understand where that trend started!)

Then it was time to move over to the House of Commons for the reception. After waiting in a queue for what felt like forever but while having a lovely chat with everyone we finally got in! While in the queue though I was talking to Julie about the start of my Fixers project and we were saying that was only just over a year ago which is crazy as it honestly feels like so much longer when I consider how much has happened in the past year! This past year really has been crazy but looking back I really am proud of how far I have come during that time and I can’t wait to see what the next year brings!

At the House of Commons we again had lots of time to network with the other ambassadors and the professionals in the room before a few speeches were made about the #iwill campaign which were great to listen to (there was also cake involved!)

After a few of the speeches, 4 of the other ambassadors and me met with some people from the Office For Civil Service. We were to be given the Prime Minister’s Points of Light awards at the event ready for the announcements during the week. I felt so honoured to have received the award which you can read more about it on my page here and to have the privilege of sharing the occasion with some other truly inspiring young people! We were presented our certificates by Rob Wilson MP and pictures were taken ready for our awards to be announced during the week. I was so speechless when I was told about this award as I honestly never expect any recognition for anything I do and just do it because I’m so passionate about helping others and making a difference. Plus helping others really has helped me in terms of my mental wellbeing which is an amazing added bonus!

Then some more networking before the final speeches! There were some really great speeches but one in particular stuck with which was Young Trustee Luke Rees’s speech! He spoke of how sporting volunteering really helped his mental health and his journey was just incredible! I felt so inspired and his message of the benefits on mental health is similar to my message too. Seeing how much he had accomplished made me even more determined to carry on doing what I’m doing.

And that was it an incredible, inspiring but very tiring day was over.. well not quite I had a train journey to go which was a lot easier said than done. That day the weather had been horrendous with tracks and stations flooded and so trains were cancelled and delayed. Finally I managed to get on a train back to university thinking I would be back in a few hours. Over 5 hours at 1:30am, I finally got back after what should have been a two hour journey. I got into bed and was asleep almost instantly! That just goes to show how exhausted I was but it was honestly a very inspiring day and I met lots of people who I really do hope I stay in contact with. Most importantly it motivated me to carry on with everything I do and always strive for bigger things! Anything you set your mind t can be accomplished and age is no barrier!

We can beat this!

 

 

 

 

#iwill ambassador // How did I get here?

On Monday (21/11/16) I attended an event in Church House Conference Centre and then the House of Commons to celebrate #iwillWeek. At this event they were celebrating the announcement of 50 new ambassadors and I was lucky enough to have been selected as one of those 50 volunteers. I thought I would explain a bit more about how I got to that point, the event itself, and what my plans are for going forward from here. I’m going to split these into three different blog posts!

How did I get to this point?

Here is my #iwill case study which explains a little abut why I was chosen as an ambassador and what social action I have been involved in – http://www.iwill.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/Naomi-Lea.pdf

There has been a lot more that I’ve done than is mentioned in that very short case study and over the past year and a half I have accomplished way more than I would have thought possible. I’ve gone from being extremely anxious and even being unable to answer questions in a classroom to being able to talk on tv and radio and sharing my story anywhere I can. I’m far from cured and sometimes it still does take a lot out of me to be involved in some of the things that I am but I appreciate and have enjoyed every opportunity I have had. I ‘m incredibly grateful for the support that all the organisations I have volunteered with have provided for me to make sure I have been able to take part in these opportunities feeling as comfortable as possible. I can’t name all the organisations that I have worked with and thank them individually as it would take me forever but there are 2 that stand out as the opportunities that have helped me really grow in confidence.

Firstly Fixers UK who  helped me create this film and then this broadcast that went out on ITV Wales. They really helped me kickstart my idea and make a difference. In fact I invited the broadcast researcher who worked on my project along with me to the #iwill event! On the tube on the way back we had a conversation about how it felt like a lot longer than just over a year since I started that project and it is crazy how much I have gone on to do since. We also discussed how I was that morning of the filming for the ITV broadcast shoot which I remember so clearly. That morning I had several panic attacks which really started to make me question whether or not I could do it.. but I carried on and pushed through it. I got to the location and was met by the crew that I would be spending the day with.. one of the first things they said was “you are so pale, are you alright?” and I said yes and just carried on. I was noticeably anxious but then when the camera was put on me for my interview I shocked them all.. turns out it actually comes pretty natural to me. I was just as shocked as them really as I had no idea that I would be able to do it. It just showed me how important it is for me to push through my anxiety (to a limit though!) instead of just giving in. By doing that I can achieve so much more than I would have expected. That day has stuck with me ever since and it wouldn’t have happened without the team at Fixers and their amazing support! I can’t thank them enough!

Secondly but definitely not any less important has been my time so far with the NSPCC’s young volunteers team, Participation Unit. I have been volunteering with them for around a year and a half now and I really wish I had found out about them sooner. From taking part in online weekly chats on topics, attending events at parliament to speaking out on TV/radio/newspapers, it has all been absolutely amazing and I have gained an incredible amount of skills that I can use in the future and every event I attend with them I learn something new or develop a new skill. Through volunteering with them I have created some amazing friendships and connections with people both younger and older than me that share the same passion for wanting to keep children safe. But the main people to thank here are the incredible team of staff that organise and run these events where we volunteer.They go way above and beyond what anyone would expect in terms of supporting us and are truly incredible. All the members of staff there both past and present are genuinely an inspiration to me and if I can do my job (whatever that may be in the future) as well as they do then I would be incredibly happy. Without the support and encouragement of them I may not have carried on going and my confidence wouldn’t have grown as much as it has. I think anyone that has known me for the span of the time I have been volunteering with them could testify that I have come a very long way from where I started. I remember my first event with them I was so so nervous. New people and it was a huge event at their central office.. terrifying. It has been organised so well though and the staff all made us feel so welcome and that we were supported at all times. That day I had such an amazing day and it was the start of many more events to come. I don’t really think I can’t fully put into words how much Participation means to me and I have no doubt that it is going to continue to be a huge part of my life. So thank you to all the staff at PU and all the friends and amazing people I have met so far through taking part, you are all incredible! I’m looking forward to continuing to be a part and sharing loads of new memories and inside jokes! #ToyCar  😉

They are just two of the organisations I have been involved with and there is a lot more to this journey. So many people have helped me with my social action. Family, friends, teachers and organisations have all played their part in getting me to this stage! To be chosen as an ambassador for a campaign promoting social action in young people is an absolute honour but I know I have plenty to say! Volunteering truly has turned my life around and given me a purpose keeping me afloat even when things have got extremely hard again at times. I hope that in my role as ambassador for the campaign that I can really show young people the benefits social action has on mental wellbeing and self-confidence, but more on that in a blog post coming soon!

Remember.. We Can Beat This!

University and Support Services // Rosey’s story

Here’s the second of the contributions to my ‘University with a mental illness’ series from Rosey. She is a 3rd year student and I think this gives a great perspective on how important it is to use the support that is available at your university.

Before coming to Uni, I’d never sought professional help for my mental health problems, but I saw moving away to study as a fresh start and decided I’d utilise the services around me to try and get better. I was really nervous about the impact of starting University on my mental health, especially with aspects such as moving into Halls, meeting new people and learning to live independently.

I did find first year at times really difficult, especially when the pressures of study, socialising, working and other things all seemed to pile up and I felt really overwhelmed. I sought support from my GP who suggested I started taking anti-depressants. While I was against the idea of medication, I decided to give them a shot, as well as getting in touch with the Student Support services at University.

This was probably the best piece of advice I’d give to anyone dealing with mental health problems at University. They offer loads of different services from one-to-one counselling, group workshops, self-help books and drop-in sessions, and in my experience they have been really understanding and supportive. It’s not easy for anyone to admit they are struggling and in need of help, but it is such a vital step in getting the support you deserve.

I’ve been in and out of Student Support since my first year (I’m now in my final year), and they have helped me with lots of things from applying for extenuating circumstances, taking an Interruption of Study and generally helping me find ways to cope when things are tough. I am also very fortunate in having a good personal tutor who has always tried hard to support me, and while I was reluctant to admit I have mental health problems, I’m glad I was able to disclose this, as it means they can try and help you in the best way for you.

I’ve also really enjoyed trying different things and getting to know new people. As anxiety-provoking as it may be to put yourself out there, Uni is a time to get involved in new things and meet so many interesting people. It can be hard to find a balance between doing enough and not doing too much, but it does get easier, and I’ve learnt how to take better care of myself when things are stressful.

My University experience hasn’t been a straightforward journey, as I have changed degrees, and taken a year out, as well as having to resit exams and coursework due to things out of my control, but I’m still so glad I decided to come as sometimes pushing yourself outside your comfort zone is the best thing you can do. It might not be for everyone, but getting through those first few weeks in first year showed me that you don’t have to be held back by your circumstances.

I’d like to thank Rosey for writing this brilliant post on her experiences. Remember if you want to contribute to this series whether you’re currently at university or have graduated then please get in contact. You can use the contact form on my blog, comment down below, email naomillea@aol.com or contact me via Twitter @isthatnaomix

We can beat this!