Blog 68: Did you wear yellow?

Did you realise that 10th October was young peoples mental health awareness day and we should have worn yellow? Did you know this day existed? Did you wear yellow? Did you reach out to those people who you know with mental illness? Did you know that thousands of young people don’t talk about their mental health? Did you know that 1 in 5 teenagers struggle with mental health? That is 20% of our population and we don’t even know it! Did you know you know at least one person with mental health needs? Did you know that loads of people can go each day without speaking to anyone? Did you know that majority of the population have issues with wanting to committing suicide.

10th October 2019 was when we needed to think about young people with their mental illness and how it can affect their life. Having a mental health issue can affect every part of everyday life from work to school, from a social life to being on your own, from not sleeping to sleeping too much. Mental health is not just something someone deals with but it is their feelings and emotions that get highly affected. Young people go through enough with exams, social life and growing up and then adding mental health to a young person can add so much stress onto it. It is not something that I want someone else to go through. It is hard and no one should have to go through this.

Mental Health is a horrible thing, it affects thoughts, feelings, social life, sleep, going out, relationships and so much more. A lot of things happen in a young peoples life and then to add onto that mental health it can seem like they are a failure and they are not able to do the things that they are able to do. Mental health is not a good thing and a lot of young people go through it alone because they have to be ‘cool’ and can’t show their weak side to themselves let alone their friends. As many people have told me having a mental illness and getting help is not being weak, being weak is not dealing with it and not recognising that you need help.

I have been through mental illness and I have seen how people feel about it, I know what people feel about me, I know the ‘labels’ that people have, I know what having mental health is like, believe me I do! I know that having mental health is restrictive, I know that it affects my emotions, I know it effects my relationships, I know it affects my mood, I know it affects me everyday. I am grateful for those people around me who know me, who I can talk to, who understand me, who realise that I am going through something normal. I know that having a mental health illness is hard and I might have it for the rest of my life but I know that I will be able to work through it and I can have the coping mechanisms in place to help myself and other people too.

You may be going through mental health at this moment in time and you may be ready to give up but please don’t. You may think you are on your own but you are not, you may not feel worth it but you are, you may not feel like anything but you are. As much as other people are busy and may not have time for you God does, God looks at you like His child, God looks at you like perfect, God looks at you like His son/daughter, God looks at you just the way you are and are not judged. God does not judge you, God does not label you, God does not think of you any less, you can rely on God and He will love you more than any other person on this planet. Trust Him and the life that He has set in front of you. God is there for you but will you be there for someone else?