Please, please read what you can of this and help if you can, even if it’s just by reblogging the post so it reaches more people.
____________________________________________________________The basics:
1 in 4 people will experience some kind of mental health problem in the course of a year and I personally have been affected by mental health. Doncaster Mind is part of the UK charity Mind, their mission statement is:
“Our vision is of a society that promotes and protects good mental health for all, and that treats people with experience of mental distress fairly, positively, and with respect.
Doncaster Mind works with people with experience of mental distress to achieve and maintain a more fulfilling life, and to play a full and equal part in society.”
I have been on mental health wards over the last few months and Mind is playing a big part in helping me recover from and accept my mental health issues. I am going to shave off all of my hair to raise money for Mind and would like to raise at least £1000.
You can donate easily by text, see the bottom of the post headlined “Sponsorship/donating”
My story:
I’ve had mental health issues for almost as long as I remember, I always struggled to feel like I belonged. I’ve had counselling for OCD, tried having counselling for depression when I was around fifteen or sixteen but I felt like I was being judged during the session so that didn’t work out. I’d also asked my doctor at the time for anti-depressants but he wouldn’t give them to me – maybe because of my age or because I admitted I was having relationship issues.
My parents divorced when I was sixteen and since then I’ve not really felt like I had one place I could call home, although I have lots of family members I could stay with. At eighteen, I moved to London to study Creative Writing, and for a while, things were going fine then I was physically ill for a couple of weeks, from there my mental health deteriorated. I became really down and depressed, had no interest in socialising, spending time with my boyfriend or attending university. Around this time I first experienced feelings of anxiety too, so began to stay in and sleep all the time, hiding away.
It was getting close to Christmas and I thought going home and spending time with my family would help, but it didn’t. I remember finding Christmas day hard and becoming upset over the tiniest things. In January I visited my doctor in London and this time the doctor I saw seemed to understand, and I was prescribed Citalopram, an anti-depressant.
After a while, things got better. I became less irritable and more my usual bubbly self. However, I’d missed so much of university that I decided to drop out. Then me and my boyfriend at the time were arguing a lot and that began to affect me. We were living together in London, both looking for work but things with us just weren’t working. I’d just found a perfect job for me, working for a cupcake company (baking cupcakes is one of my hobbies). Quite suddenly I decided to break it off, then I got involved with a friend of a friend and he let me stay with him until I got back on my feet again. But I didn’t get there, instead I found and experienced marijuana properly for the first time. I became dependant on it and I was staying up all night and writing about wanting to end my life. I lost my new job and everything just seemed too much. I refused to accept I needed help for weeks, although my friends had all expressed their concerns.
I then decided without much thought that I wanted to go back to university. In the first lecture I attended, my lecturer was concerned about my manic state, and advised me to go to talk to one of the university counsellors, which I did. The university counsellor then forwarded on my assessment to another team, who advised that I go to A&E, which seemed silly to me. Then I put them on the phone to my friend and in the end I agreed to go and he came with me.
Whilst waiting to be seen I was very restless and ran out in to the road as an attempt to end my life – luckily there were no passing cars. I was put on to a mental health ward in London that night and it was really scary – I wanted to leave but the doctors and nurses wouldn’t let me. I “kicked off” (which is unlike me) and tried to run out of the doors, set off the panic alarm and was restrained and taken up to the ward. I was on that ward for three nights, during which time my friend visited me. My dad and sister then came down to London to pick me up as the staff there wouldn’t let me leave until a family member had come to get me.
I stayed at my sister’s that night but I was still really manic – finding things on the internet and saying they were about me or were messages to me. So again, I ended up in A&E, this time in Doncaster. My dad and sister took me there because they thought I was acting very strangely. The doctors assessed me and then I was taken in to hospital – another mental health ward, I thought! At this time, I still wasn’t really recognising how ill I was. I thought everyone else was crazy for thinking I was crazy.
I don’t remember my time in hospital too clearly – I was refusing my medication at first as I refused to accept that I needed it, so I was then moved to a psychiatric intensive care ward and sectioned. However after just five days my state had improved and I was moved back on to the open ward. I then appealed against my section and a medical tribunal decided to lift my section, on the basis that I agree to stay in hospital and accept treatment.
I was still not allowed much leave, and one day when I had got leave I ended up not feeling capable of getting back on my own, I felt panicky and so my mum had to pick me up and take me back to hospital. I now realise that the wards I was on were just looking out for my safety, although it’s not a great place to be, which is why they work with you to get you better so you can get back out in to the world.
Since leaving hospital I have been seeing the early interventions team and Doncaster access team, I went back in to hospital for a short while because I was feeling suicidal.
Now I am out of hospital, Doncaster Mind is helping me, which is part of the national mental health charity, Mind. I go to a Creative Writing class there on Wednesdays and am going to participate in some of the other groups they run – all the groups are free to go to, and anybody is welcome at Mind. They also have a drop in centre, where people affected by mental health can sit and have a chat and a drink.
I attended their Christmas party, which was free for members - it costs £1 to become a member of Mind, but you don’t need to be a member to attend the groups or drop ins. The party included a buffet, karaoke and Santa.
It’s nice to get out and do things and Mind helps with that. It brings people who have had similar experiences together and helps get people back on their feet. The work they do is amazing, they help so many people and now I’d like to give something back and help them. I don’t have much money as I’m still building myself back up and am living on benefits until I am settled on my medication and having more good days than bad ones.
What I do have though is hair – but not for long! I’m going to shave all of my hair off to raise money for Mind and also awareness of the work they do. I’m aiming to raise at least £1000 so please help and give Mind a few pounds please!Sponsorship/Donating
You can sponsor me personally, by sending me a message and giving your details so I can add you to my sponsorship form, then collect the money once I’ve shaven my hair off – I haven’t set a date just yet but I’m thinking around the beginning of February.
Or you can donate with Just Text Giving, following the simple instructions on this page:
http://www.doncastermind.org.uk/index.htmOr by downloading this form:
http://www.doncastermind.org.uk/files/Donate%20-%20Form.pdfIf you do donate by text or post, please let me know so I can see how close I’ve come to raising my goal of £1000.
Also if you have the time you could have a read of this:
Mental Health StatisticsAnd if you have any free time, why not volunteer for Mind?
Thank you very much for reading :)
Guys this is me, please help! :)
