5 THINGS THEY DON’T TELL YOU ABOUT MENTAL HEALTH

“Words can break someone into a million pieces, but they can also put them back together.”

Taylor Swift

Having recently experienced a relapse in my mental health journey (you can read more about it at its very worst in this blog post: TW | “SHE’S ACTUALLY JUMPED! GET AMBULANCE ON LIGHTS & SIREN!” | WHAT HAPPENS BEFORE, DURING, & AFTER YOU JUMP, LESSONS LEARNT, & LOTS OF ADVICE | I'm NOT Disordered), I’m finally in a much better and safer place mentally and, a few days ago (at the time of writing) I was discharged from the caseload of my local Crisis Team. The entire relapse really brought home the fact that professionals tend to miss out or skirt over the fact that recovery isn’t linear and so, they’re often promoting this idea of once you’re in recovery that’s it; you’re better forever. When this simply isn’t true, and – I feel – it does more harm to not prepare someone to still need to face difficult days. So, with this in mind, I was inspired to write this blog post about other things professionals leave unsaid about mental health…

THE IMPORTANCE OF VALIDATION IN MENTAL & PHYSICAL HEALTH

So, if you follow my Twitter you’ll have seen why this topic is so relevant in my life right now. So here’s why validation has had as great an impact on my mental and physical health as painkillers have(!)…

Back in late 2006, after the abuse began, I started having crippling tummy pains and was constantly being rushed to hospital for pain relief and tests but only on two occasions did they find something – cysts on my ovaries. I ended up having surgery one time to drain one of the cysts but for all of the times I was taken to hospital and they found nothing, I worried that soon the Doctors and Nurses would grow sick of me and that there could be one time when something was seriously wrong and they wouldn’t believe me. But the pain felt as real and as genuine as the keyboard feels while I type this.


Since my mental health has been completely stable after my medication increase earlier this year, I’ve noticed that I’m more in-tune with my body and physical health. I’ve occasionally had tummy pains still, but they’ve always found something; and I’ve actually been diagnosed with Poly-Cystic Ovaries. So, when I slipped on the ice on November 30^th (this year), I thought straight away that my wrist was broken but when I was sitting in the Minor Injuries waiting room, I was so scared that my X Ray would come back normal that I worried what it would mean to be told that nothing was wrong and be left doubting myself and my instincts again. But instead, the Nurse came along and said that it was ‘no wonder’ I was in so much pain because I had a Buckle Break right the way through the Radius in my wrist. I remember thinking ‘and if the X-Ray had come back ok then my pain would have been disingenuous?!’ But I guess that’s why validation is so essential; because otherwise, there’s the danger that you feel as though no one believes you – that they think you’re lying.