Mental health

DISCLAIMER: This post might not make sense to some but to others, it will. I am not aiming for it to be in an order. I just want to raise awareness. 

As it is Mental Health awareness week in the UK ( I don't know about elsewhere) I wanted to do a post related to mental health. Being someone who has suffered the ups, downs and the circles of mental health over the last 10 years, this week is a week close to my heart. 

The biggest thing I've learnt in the last few years that its okay, not to be okay. You are allowed a bad day, weeks even month. Having a couple of days in your bed, not speaking to anyone, your blinds shut and binging on Zoella's Vlogmas. Of course, you don't have to do that but that is how I cope. Some people might cope by being around people they love the most. 

August 2017 was one of the worst months of my life. You would expect it to be one of the best seen as it is summer and it is my birthday month. That month was the month I think everyone who I know and who knows me realised how bad my anxiety had gotten. Even I didn't realise until that night when I was having an uncontrollable panic attack. I am going to do another blog post on that night.

Also in 2017, I lost my job. I was fired from Mcdonalds for not mentally being able to go back to work. I had suffered multiple panic attacks at work, my mind was making my body throw up because it didn't like the atmosphere. I was only truly understood by a hand full of people, at the most. Since I got fired and I had less money, I realised I was still as unhappy, stressed, anxious you name it as I was when I was earning money. Money doesn't buy happiness. Having friends doesn't make you happy. Having a job doesn't mean you have a comfortable life. I am happier with no money, no friends and no job. Believe it or not.

Not all mental illness' are visible. I hid mine for years before even coming to terms with it my self. Even until August last year, I was still playing ignorant to my own mental health issue, even though I had been diagnosed with chronic anxiety months before. Even my closest friend didn't know how bad it was. I used to get called boring for not wanting to go out so I would end up putting my self in an uncomfortable situation just to make the other people happy. I soon learnt that I would rather have no friends and be happy with myself. 

Mental health isn't a trend, habit or a joke. People have different reasons to have a mental problem. They don't have to have had a "bad life" to have mental problems. We can't just get over it or forget about it. We can't just delete the problem. There is more information out there than there used to be, but the information isn't spread enough.

If you live in the UK I would 110% recommend the charity MIND. I have learnt so much on what anxiety is and how to fight it. I had 6 months of therapy with them and even though some sessions I didn't feel like going to, I still went. I am so glad I kept going until they felt I had progressed. I can also always go back whenever I feel like it.  

How much do you know about mental health is the question. 

Katie

xoxo