‘You are not alone’ – encouragement from a young person on the road to recovery

Posted: 31/01/25

This blog post for Children’s Mental Health Week 2025 was written by a young person who is part of our Youth Involvement Bank:

I’ve struggled with mental health for as long as I can remember. It took a long time to get help, and it has been hard. I’ve been involved with social services, in care, and had to fight quite hard to get referred to the right services. It often felt like people listened to the adults, but not to me.

But I want to share some things with you that have helped me, and encourage you.

I’m sure my personal experience is completely different to yours, but that doesn’t stop me from understanding and sympathising. I know you can do this.

Everyone is different, so different things work for different people. But you will not know what works for you until you try.

I know it seems a bit silly, but I distract myself by studying, reading, drawing, and baking. The thing is, you don’t even need to be good at it to enjoy it.

Deep breathing also helps calm me down, and that’s just one out of all the other grounding techniques out there.

If grounding techniques like deep breathing work for you, please don’t feel like you are not ‘good enough’ or ‘deserving’ of help just because they help you to feel a bit better. That’s the whole purpose of them! But I know that when things worked for me, I felt like I must not have been ‘that bad’.

And do not ever feel like you aren’t good enough if none of these techniques work for you, either! Everyone is different, so different things work for different people. But you will not know what works for you until you try.

Also, I’d really recommend ENGAGING in your therapy sessions. It creates a better atmosphere, and it not only helps your therapist, but it also mainly helps YOU. When I engage it helps me retain information better and helps to progress the sessions.

One of my old therapists gave me a technique that I want to share with you.

Imagine a character you like. It can be a character from a TV show, anime, game, etc. Now, imagine this character is your best friend. How would you feel if they decided they were going to harm themselves?

It might not work for you, but I find this helpful to think about.

Just remember there are loads of people that care about you – including me, even though we don’t know each other.

The theme for this year’s Children’s Mental Health Week is ‘Know yourself, Grow yourself’.

I can tell you that you will only grow if you begin to know yourself — what do you really want?

Don’t be afraid to express your views. I know I was. But it can get you the help and support you need.

Try and find people you like, who don’t leave you out. (Those people don’t deserve someone as great as you!) Find the people best for you, because that’s the only way you’ll grow to know and love yourself.

In the end, only YOU can decide whether or not you want to help yourself.  You are in charge of your brain, and if you are not willing to help yourself, then neither can others, because you do have to put the work in. I know it’s hard. There is not a quick fix, and I’m still on the road to recovery.

Thank you for reading. I wish you the best, good luck, stay safe, and just remember there are loads of people that care about you – including me, even though we don’t know each other.