Mental Health awareness week

Hi everyone!

So, if you didn't know already it is Mental Health awareness week this week and I think it is extremely important to educate people on how important your mental health is and how it can affect people of all ages and not just young people going through exam stress and old people that are getting lonely. It can really affect people of all ages and of all backgrounds. As well as that, mental health is something that can't be seen, so just because you can't see it, doesn't mean its not there.

Mental health is important to me because in the past I feel like I have been in bad places mentally. One time when I was in a mentally bad place was back in 2013/4 when a close friend of mine at the time had cancer. I was devastated at the news and I thought she was going to die because it was her second time fighting cancer. I kept thinking of this and ended up getting quite depressed. It got to the point where I was having suicidal thoughts. It was horrible. Thankfully my friend survived but the depression lasted for quite a while after she came back to school. As well as that I have had periods where I feel like I have suffered from anxiety and it has really affected me sometimes.

I must point out that I have never been officially been diagnosed with any mental illness. To be totally honest, I haven't really talked to anyone about it. I always been a bit scared. I am hoping by writing this that I can be more open about my mental health. I also hope I can help other people be more open about their mental illness. As well as that I would like to end the stigma around mental illness  and the stigma around just talking about it. Although it has got better over recent years, there is still along way to go with ending the stigma around mental illness. Just look how far the world has come with gay equality rights! We can go just as far with breaking down the stigma around mental illness.

Thank you for taking the time to read this as it is a subject that is very close to my heart. It is in no way a sob story and I hope nobody has read this thinking that it is. If you want to share your personal mental health story below in the comments they would be gratefully accepted. Personally, I would like the world, and especially this blog, to be a caring community and support network. If you have any negative comments to say please do not leave them here!

Thanks for reading again!

Abbey
xx