I have always known that it shouldn’t matter what other people think about me, but I always have these thoughts in the back of my mind saying that something is wrong with me and I’m not good enough. As Pink (P!nk) says in her song, “You can push me out the window, I’ll just get back up. You can run over me with your 18 wheeler truck and I won’t give a fuck”. I don’t know about you, but this says to me that you shouldn’t let anything or anyone tell you to change or stop being

When we queried the effects of the medication with the doctor, they told us to stop the medicine immediately, just as the pharmacist said. They said that other medicines of this type are likely to have the same kind of effect. When it was explained to me, it made a lot of sense… Anti-depressant and anti-anxiety drugs work to correct the chemical imbalance in the brain and as my brain is damaged, the medicine had a negative effect on my brain, making my involuntary movements w

In the early stages of taking the medication, I tried using my walking frame because the side effects were meant to go away, and I needed to get on with my life even if my body wasn’t playing ball at the time. That didn’t end well at all! I had separate splints that go inside the full leg splints. I always sit on the sofa to put my splints on, and I had one splint on but I needed to push myself back, so I put my feet down, but my left foot wouldn’t go flat, so I had to push w

In May I was diagnosed with anxiety and depression. As I said in the beginning, I knew that I had mental health issues from the age of 16 or 17, but I thought that it was temporary. I thought and hoped that it was just because of teething problems relating to major changes in my life, like transitioning from school to college, but I couldn’t have been further from the truth… In the last few months, my mental health has become a lot worse. Probably a combination of things happ

I don’t have many friends; I only have three or four really good friends, and they mean the world; I honestly don’t know what I’d do without them. Two of them have seen me at my best and worst times, and I know they will be there for me through thick and thin, even when the world feels like it’s crashing down on top of me and I can’t begin to explain what’s going on. Neither of these people realise how amazing they are, nor do they realise how much they mean to me! I’ve alway

At college, I made one friend in the class, but even though this may sound horrible, I didn’t feel like she was a true friend, more of an acquaintance. I had this person around for a few hours at my parent’s house once, and to be honest, I didn’t feel one hundred per cent comfortable with her, and I realised that I only made friends with her because I thought it was the “right” thing to do at that age and my college encouraged me to make friends. Soon after my second year of

Written between 27 May and 12 December 2024 I only remember having three friends throughout primary school, and we soon drifted apart once we moved to senior school.   Looking back on my life at senior school, I now realise that I only had about three or four friends throughout the five years I was there. I didn’t realise this then, but I didn’t have conversations with other pupils apart from my immediate friends. I have struggled with my mental health for many years, more sp