I’ve honestly
been wracking my brains to think of a way to wangle my trip to Coldstream into
a blog post and finally thought of this! So, the inspiration for this post
about how the ‘unknown’ can impact our mental health, has come from the fact
I’ll be travelling on a train for the first time since the UK lockdown…
I’ve seen so many people talk about their anxiety at the thought
of lockdown regulations and social distancing guidelines being reduced and
loosened to the point where many people now have the opportunity to do
something, they haven’t for over a year. Seeing these people talk about their
fear of these big changes, inspired me to consider my own thoughts on the rules
being slackened and I kind of felt ‘bad’ when I realised, I didn’t have much
hesitation or anxiety on this.
That ‘bad’ notion stemmed from that feeling most people get when
they hear of someone struggling with something, they might not even give a
second glance. Or worse still, to hear of someone actually fearful of something
you/I actually really enjoy. For me, this way of thinking came from my time in
psychiatric hospitals when I had the sharp realisation that there were a lot of
things in my life that I’d maybe taken for granted and I learnt this because so
many other inpatients didn’t have these things.
Something important to say at this point is that you’re allowed to struggle even when you begin to consider yourself ‘lucky’ in some respects compared to others… I mean, the most notable realisation I had in hospital was when I heard so many inpatients talk about their parents and difficult – or even completely non-existent – relationships with them. It left me wondering if I’d really taken my Mum’s unwavering and unconditional support for granted; and this led to the thought process I want to discourage: ‘do I have the right to struggle when I have something someone else doesn’t?’