MENTAL HEALTH TIPS FOR YOUNG PEOPLE | THE #HELLOYELLOW CAMPAIGN WITH YOUNGMINDS

 

In a bid to reassure young people that they’re not alone in their mental health, YoungMinds have created the #HelloYellow campaign which you can support by wearing something yellow on October 8thand donating to their cause here: https://bit.ly/3EsL71H

 

DON’T JOKE ABOUT MENTAL HEALTH, ABUSE, SELF-HARM, OR SUICIDE

After the abuse began when I was fifteen, the first mental health difficulty I can remember experiencing was suicidal thoughts and feelings. To be fair, I say ‘suicidal’ but I think it was about more than wanting to be dead; it was about wanting to escape. Wanting to be safe and free. That realisation that actually killing myself wasn’t what I really wanted - and a few other things - led me to start self-harming.

Scratching at my arms hard enough to cause red marks very quickly became more and more severe and it got to the point where a friend noticed a scabbed scratch on the top of my forearm. I still remember the comment she made in front of a few other friends “were you trying to kill yourself?!” And someone else laughed and piped up “if she was killing herself she’d have done the other side!” “Maybe she missed” said someone else.